Canon Snapshots and Blue Jolly Ranchers
by loveavenger
Summary: A hostess mom, a baka of a childhood friend and certain moments with the school's No.1 pervert mean Karin's time at Fumizuki Academy might just get a little interesting. Kouta x OC. Read and review for snapshots and cookies!
1. Fumizuki Academy and New Beginnings

_Four years ago, Fumizuki Academy adopted an examination system where the scores are not limited to 100. With this system, students could answer as many questions as they could within the time limit of an hour. A student would then have no limit to how high they could score, the limit instead being the student's own intelligence._

_From classes A to F in the second year, the students are ranked based on their intelligence on the placement test at the end of the first year. Fumizuki Academy students can summon a 'shoukanjuu' or 'summoned being' with the being's abilities and strength based on the student's grades. With these, they can battle each other for better school supplies and nicer classrooms, from the luxury Class A with its high-tech facilities and reclining armchairs to the derelict Class F with its forlorn tatami mats and crumbling coffee table._

_At the end of the first year, the Academy held a placement test for students from across the city and country that were moving into the Fumizuki Academy area and wished to transfer. Many students arrived for the test – from as north as Aomori and as east as Chiba – and sat it successfully. Apart from one, who spent it sleeping._

* * *

To: Nanako Sato  
From: Karin Sato

Dear Mom,  
We have an urgent issue. I'm not even kidding – I don't care if you're drunk – this is honestly serious. What's going to happen now? I fell asleep during the placement exam. I had barely started and then I felt my eyelids closing, and everything becoming so much more serene—  
But that's not the point! What if they don't even accept me? They totally should now, seeing as I live 10 minutes walk away, but I have a perfectly good place at Kazuhiro High School. Why would they accept someone who seems like she can barely keep her eyes open during an extremely important test?  
The ironic thing is I was _studying_ the night before. Studying so late it came back and bit me in the ass! When you come down next, you're sleeping on the couch by the way. I can't be bothered to move. When is that by the way? You didn't come down last weekend, so technically you should come down and visit this weekend. By the way, I'm going to visit Akira and Akihisa this evening!  
Can you believe Akira's already graduated? Time flies ~ And Akihisa is going to be in my year at the Academy. Here's hoping he's got some brains and we're not in the same class. Anyway, I'll see you next weekend! Have fun!

Love, Karin.

P.S. Can I have some more money? I want to buy new pillows.

To: Karin Sato  
From: Nanako Sato

Honey,  
I can't visit this weekend. Your aunt booked us all tickets for the theatre. Chiharu is asking after you – she says that there's a fantastic film festival in three weeks that you would absolutely adore. So instead of me coming down, how about you come and stay in Osaka for a while? The train is just over two hours, to get here, so you could get the 4:30 train from Fumizuki's main station and be here at quarter to seven. Fujiko was on the computer last night looking at it. You could go back down on Sunday evening, it would be excellent!  
I'm so sorry to hear about your news! I'm sure that they will accept you – the new flat is so close now that they can't exactly refuse, remember how hard it was to get you into Kazuhiro High because we lived so far away? It'll be fine, I'm sure. You just might end up being in the lowest class or whatever. You can always retake the exams, honey. There's plenty of time, and you're only in the second year at the moment.  
Damn right that's ironic. Tell the Yoshii siblings that I said hello. Akira was only starting university a few years ago! I remember it, you were in middle school then, about to start your second year! I still have the photos from when we all dropped her off at the orientation – oh, the good times that they were. Frankly I'm not buying that Akihisa's brain power has increased all too much. Might just be wishful thinking. At least if he's in your class then you will know someone, right?  
Tell me as soon as possible if going to Osaka is in your plans. We'll book the tickets for you, and then Chiharu can get you into that film festival. Bring a new friend!

Love, Mom xo

P.S. I sent it to your account. We need to sort out your budget. Maybe I should come and live there full time?

To: Nanako Sato  
From: Karin Sato

Dear Mom,  
I'm pretty sure that I'll be coming to Osaka. Tell Chiharu that I'll definitely be there, and tell Fujiko that I said hi. I can't wait to see you guys! Mom, I miss you. It's been too long. But I'll see you soon, and I can't wait. I love bullet trains too. The 4:30 train sounds cool – I just looked at my timetable, and I finish at half past three so I should have plenty of time if I take the subway to the station.  
When we bought the flat, did they mention that there were going to be X-rated activities underground? It was only when some crazy lady came up to me yesterday and asked me if I was looking for a good time when I came home from Akihisa's place that I realised there's some kind of underground lap dance place that's been going on for ages. She was about to come in the lift and everything. I'm straight. I'm sixteen. Is this woman freaking mental?  
Akira is so grown up. It's been three years since I've seen them both. And Akihisa is so grown up too. He's not all that tall though, and he's still as stupid as he ever was. On that subject, we're in the same class!  
I got into Class F, by the skin of my teeth. Good Christ, the reluctance that was in the woman's voice in that phone call. But I'm still in, and I start tomorrow – in the same class as Hisa-chan. Wish me luck!

Love, Karin.

P.S. Ha, no worries on that one, Mom. You just stick to sending me money for pillows and drinking your sake. Love you.

To: Akira Yoshii  
From: Karin Sato

Akira!  
It's just me, Karin. I wanted to say how awesome and healthy you look since we last saw you – you look even more beautiful than when we dropped you off at orientation! I've really missed you guys since then, and it was really great to see you yesterday. Thank you for cooking by the way, it was delicious. Maybe we should cook together at some point…?  
I also wanted to add that if Akihisa wants to meet me on the way to the Academy on Monday morning, then that would be great. I'll be waiting outside your house at 7:40 tomorrow ~ So he doesn't actually really have a choice. I need to be with someone that I know, preferably. I would e-mail him, but I don't know his address and honestly I don't know if he's literate enough to make one yet. So pass this on, please!  
Thank you, lots of love!

Karin.

To: Karin Sato  
From: Akira Yoshii

Ah, Karin, sweetie.  
Thank you so much! I've missed you guys too, and I know Akihisa was happy to see his childhood friend again after these few years! My university years were great, by the way, and I'll show you some pictures if you have time. You really think my cooking was good? I'd love to show you how to cook sometime – Akihisa always seems to have some kind of weird reaction to my cooking. He's a strange boy.  
I've passed your message on and despite his protests he will be walking with you tomorrow, so I'll see you out on the doorstep at 7:40 like you said. I'll make you some take-away breakfast! And in answer to your question, it's .jp and I had to make it for him for family purposes. He's not really up to speed with e-mailing, etc. I hear he goes on Messenger once in a while though. Knock yourself out.  
Hugs, Akira!(:

"Akihisa, get your ass out here!" I said, tapping the clock on the screen of my mobile phone. "You don't want to be late, do you? Not on the first day of the year?"  
"I don't get there until 9 most days! And it's only the first day of the year for you! I've been going for a week!"  
"Calm down, now…"  
"I truly hate you for this, and Akira told me to give you breakfast, so here you go," he handed me a cup of instant ramen.

"Your sister isn't cooking?"

"I talked her out of it."  
"It's not that bad," I shrugged. "She just has an individual palette."  
"All those Japanese studies at Kazuhiro really made you a smart-ass, huh, Sato-chan?"

"Maybe I'm just smart. Ever considered that?"

"Well… no, not really. You're in Class F."  
"Hey! That was a fluke!"  
"Either way, can you walk behind me a bit, I don't want us to walk into school together."  
"Why not?"  
"People will talk. They'll think we're _walking together,_" Akihisa said, ever so seriously.

"Hate to break it to you, Hisa-chan, but our legs are moving, one after the other, and we're next to each other, so we ARE walking together."  
"HOW ABOUT YOU QUIT CALLING ME HISA-CHAN? And I don't mean walking together, and I mean _walking together,_" he explained, eating the ramen with his bunny chopsticks. "They were a gift," he added, noticing me looking.

"Walking together?"  
"Yeah, you know, like _together,"_ he said, adding extra emphasis on the word.  
"Oh, like _together together,"_ I realised, catching on.  
"Yes, you idiot! Do you want that?"  
"Not particularly but it's just the rumour mill, I mean—"  
"Exactly! I'll get killed!"

"By who exactly?"  
"The FFF! They'll slaughter me! Bachelors on a mission, I tell you! Listen to me!"  
"You'll get over it."  
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

"You know, since I last saw you, Hisa-chan, you got some real anger problems!"  
"You make me angry, that's all."  
"Oh please. I'd make you angry if I told everyone about your bad habits and baby pictures and porn magazines."  
"I don't have any—h-hi, Himeji-san," Akihisa got distracted as we walked into the school gates by some busty broad and pink hair and equally rosy cheeks. Himeji-san, huh?

"Good morning, Yoshii-kun! It's a beautiful sunny day, isn't it?"  
"Good morning, H-Himeji-san," he replied sheepishly, one hand on the back of his hip and one limply by his side, a faint shade of pink spreading across his cheeks too.  
"Who's your friend?" she said, a hint of her tone turning menacing. Looks like the rumour mill just happened to get a little bit deadly at this school.  
"She's an old family friend," Akihisa shrugged.  
"Come upstairs then, Akihisa! I trust she's in a different class," Himeji nodded sweetly.

"Actually, I'm in Class F," I said, noting her tone and stepping on the other side of Akihisa. "I'll get to see you a lot, what was it, Shimeji?"  
"Himeji," she corrected with that irritating voice. I was sure I'd like her at some point in the future – but today just was not going to be it.

In Class F, I sat down against the wall, in front of Akihisa's tiny table and behind my own, propping my bag next to me. The place was a breeding ground for some kind of termites, and it was the most uncomfortable place I think I'd ever been in. Himeji sat herself down on so delicately next to Hisa-chan, and hung on to his every word, her voice dripping with cuteness.

We waited, slightly early, for a homeroom teacher or another student or something, and it was around eight fifteen when I looked around and saw somebody else come into the room.  
"Good morning all," a soft voice said, coming in and tossing a rucksack to the ground. He checked his nails in an effeminate way and kneeled down, completing the little square that we were sat in.  
"Mornin', Hideyoshi," Yoshii greeted him. "The transfer students join today."  
"Good morning, Kinoshita-san!" Himeji grinned.

"Morning, you two. I'm Hideyoshi Kinoshita," he said.  
"Good morning. I'm Karin Sato," I bowed lazily. "Transferred from Kazuhiro."  
"Nice to meet you," he said.  
"You too."

"Ah, I'm so lucky to be sat in a classroom with the two cutest girls in our year! …And it's cool to have you here too, Karin," Akihisa said, happily resting his head on his hands. I turned to Hideyoshi.

"GIRL?" we chorused.  
"Wait, and I'm not cute?" I added.  
"Yes, girl, obviously," Yoshii said like it was blatantly obvious.  
"I swear you were a guy," I said, confused.  
"I am," Hideyoshi said, rubbing his face in his hands in frustration.

"And you're too old to be cute," he turned to me.  
"I'm sixteen," I said flatly.  
"I mean, you've been around for too long," he shook his head as if he was thinking of the right words.  
"Can you even speak the Japanese language?"

"My Special Education teacher in middle school said that my brain was just a little bit late developing. Speaking of late developing…"  
"Good morning, Minami!" Hideyoshi said, turning to a purple-headed bow who looked down at Akihisa with a burning glare, one hand on her hip and the other adjusting a large yellow bow in her hair.

"I heard that," she stated flatly.  
She stood at just over average height, with model-like long legs and pretty big green eyes.  
"Minami Shimada," she stuck her hand out towards me, giving me a friendly look of moderate approval.

"Karin Sato," I shook it. "I just transferred here from Kazuhiro High School over on the other side of town."  
"She's Akihisa's childhood friend," said Himeji vehemently, her happy attitude disappearing again as she rethought the events of our walk up to the class.  
"Um… okay," Minami said, unfazed, nudging up to sit between me and Hideyoshi. "Good morning, everyone."  
"There's only two people left to turn up," Hideyoshi said, checking his nails again.

"Who?" I said.  
"Well, one of them is—Good morning, Muttsulini!" Akihisa said, waving his hand happily at the newcomer to the group.  
"Mm," he said, nodding his head full of blue hair and sitting down, pulling a camera out of his school bag and tapping the buttons deftly. A social one, I see.

"Muttsulini, good morning," grinned Hideyoshi.  
"No pictures!" said Himeji, stuttering on her words slightly and crossing her arms over her chest self-consciously.  
"Almost, almost," Muttsulini slid across the floor towards Himeji's legs as she began talking to Minami, camera in hand and perverted expression on his face. She snapped her legs shut.

"Are you having a bad day, Mizuki?" Minami asked.  
"I'm on a diet," Himeji patted her perfect stomach and looked towards the floor. "You're so lucky that you're so skinny, Minami-chan."  
"Skinny up and down," Akihisa snorted. "Ah, my spine! YOU PSYCHO! You're going to break it in two!"

"Canadian Backbreaker Drop, this one was, Akihisa, first thing on a Monday morning," Minami explained, dropping to the ground and watching Akihisa roll around in pain.  
"Well isn't this a lovely morning gathering," said a deep unenthusiastic voice from the door.

"And Yuji to complete the scene," commented Hideyoshi, who I decided I liked. A tall, masculine boy with spiky red hair walked over and sat between Himeji and Akihisa. I had to hold back a laugh at the overly feminine's girl hurt appearance.

"Good morning," Hideyoshi nodded. Kouta grunted and Minami mumbled something whilst flicking through a book.  
"Good morning, Yuji!" said Akihisa cheerfully.  
"Good morning," he nodded. "Who's this?" he indicated in my general direction.

"Oh, that's just Karin," Akihisa said matter-of-factly. "She transferred here from Kazuhiro across the city. She's alright."  
"Yuuji Sakamoto, Class Representative."  
"Resident smart-ass," Minami added.

"Right guys, let's stop playing around. It's time to seriously study!" Akihisa said, holding up his pencil to the sky in determination. This was accompanied by a hearty laugh from the other students, Yuji snapping it in half and Hideyoshi sweeping away the pieces with his hand.

_I think I like this class. And we haven't even got started yet._


	2. Takashima and Vanilla Coke

15:58PM: Our parents, they sent you a package from America, so if you want to pick it up, I think it's in the big post office in West Fumizuki. Tell me when you get it. Akira(:

16:01PM: Thanks for telling me! I'll go pick it up now.

I grabbed my handbag and rummaged through it. A crumpled piece of paper, with Minami's address hastily scrawled across it in black biro pen, said black biro pen, my purse, a packet of gum, my iPod and headphones, a powder compact, the phone I had just replaced from texting Akira back, tissues and a hair band.  
I took the purse and perused inside it, hoping to find an 1000 yen note that I had somehow forgotten about. …Nothing. Just a little 100 yen coin rolling around in a lonely fashion – not even enough to pay for the subway to go to the post office. I would have to take out some cash in the convenience store. Wait, what was this underneath the piece of paper with Minami's e-mail address written across it in simple handwriting?

A glossy picture – of Akihisa in a pretty pink frilly dress similar to one I used to have in my closet when I was six. I used to wear it to functions that I went to with my mother and father, and it was ever so cute. However, on a fairly well-built teenage boy, it looked ridiculous. What the hell was this little glossy print doing in my handbag?

Forget it. I would deal with it the day after. I wriggled into my hoodie and slung the satchel containing my things over my shoulder, walking out of the apartment and locking the door. In the convenience store, I bought a bottle of strawberry karupisu and made my way down the street, the two minute walk to the subway station.  
I stuck the 1000 yen note I drew out at the store in the vending machine, got my ticket and got on the train as it stopped; watching out for the freaky old men and other various creepy passengers that occasionally frequented the subway. Thankfully, most of the passengers at this time were just school students like me – some from my old school, who I acknowledged with a brief nod.

Whilst I sat down and plugged my iPod in for the quarter-hour ride to the station where I needed to get off. I played with the coins that were in my purse – 800 yen worth now, and looked again at the freaky photo of Akihisa. What kind of person gets off from looking at pictures of a frankly already weird teenage boy dressed up like a drag queen or a small child? There were some weird students at Fumizuki Academy alright.  
The music playing was soothing, and blocked out the clunking sounds that normally accompany a subway ride. It pumped through my ears, making me feel kind of sleepy. I adjusted myself in the uncomfortable little train seat, resting my head against the window and felt my eyes drooping against my will from getting up so early on that Monday morning.

Suddenly all of my limbs started to relax, my mind started to blank out and my eyes actually fell shut.

Where the hell was I now? Groggily, I lifted my heavy neck, looked up and saw that I was still on the subway, but instead of the friendly-looking students that were riding when I fell asleep, the train carriage was now full of businessmen that must have been leaving the office to go and get drunk or something. They looked at me with an interested expression, a couple of them showing hints of pervert faces.  
I gathered myself up, checking inside my bag to see that everything was still in there. It was. I'm lucky. I checked my phone. Nothing. Where actually was I? I had been sleeping for almost an hour and a half. I looked around. The train rumbled along, no notices, as if we were going slowly out of town. I didn't recognise my surroundings at all, but I had a feeling that at the end of rush hour if it wasn't stuffed with people then we weren't anywhere busy.

We must have gone through the entire line at least once.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now approaching Takashima Station."  
"Takashima! Takashima!" chanted one of the businessmen. "We're approaching Takashima!" He got a high five and a variety of manly grunts for his efforts, along with an enthusiastic hug from one of his younger colleagues.  
When the train grinded to a halt, I got off in the crowd of them, hoping to find my bearings.

"Hey, are _you _looking for a good time, honey?"  
"What the hell? I thought I left this back at the apartment complex!" I shrugged off the hot-pant-clad lady AND her feather boa and went over to the map to see where I was.  
I had been through the whole line once, and I was back, further past the post office on the outskirts of West Fumizuki. I had to get to the post office before it closed at seven o'clock, so I ran up the steps, knocking people out of my way so that I could go even faster. I sprinted through the streets.  
"Hey lady, what are you, mental? Slow the hell down! You look like a crazy woman!" some guy on the other side of the street yelled.

"It's another one who's 'ashamed'," a lady in heavy make-up and a little leather dress mumbled, stubbing out her cigarette.  
"Typical," her friend replied sarkily, smoking two at a time.  
"What the hell," I muttered to myself.  
"Hey girlie, where do you think you're running to? You can take the girl out of Takashima, but you can't take the Takashima out of the girl!"  
"Or the dirty old men," another woman cackled. "Ahaha!"

"Jesus Christ."  
A car pulled up next to me.  
"Girl, are you turning tricks?"  
"Go away," I started running faster, losing the car and turning up at the post office with five minutes to spare. I rushed in, slamming the door behind me.

"Been running far?" the woman behind the counter asked.  
"For twenty five minutes," I replied. "What's up with that Takashima place? I've never been there before."  
"Neither have many people your age. It's a red-light district, honey," the woman shook her head. "How did you end up there?"  
"Fell asleep on the subway. I'm here to pick up a package? It's to Karin Sato. Is it here?"

"Just let me check," she said, dimming the lights and turning the window display off as she turned around to look for the package. "Ah, here it is. You'll need to sign for it. Do you have identification?" she asked. I showed her my new school ID and she handed over the unusually large package. "Sign here please."  
"Thank you," I said, scrawling my messy signature on her neat papers. I bowed to her, clutching the package and went to leave the shop. She left with me, locking up the office and shutting the door behind her.

"Go to Atamahiza Station, down that way, instead of back through Takashima. You never know what'll happen if you don't," she warned me, bowing and walking across the street with a wave.  
I walked down the street, holding the heavy package close to my chest, and when I reached Atamahiza I walked down the steps and into the underground. I clunked the two coins into the ticket vending machine, picked up my ticket to finally go home and then sat on the bench, waiting for the 7:16 train to arrive. It was pitch black, and the crowds in the subway were dying down slightly. It was still quite busy, as West Fumizuki has good nightlife, but not as much as usual.

I let my eyes scan across the station. No-one interesting, no interesting conversations to listen to. Unless… well, that actually looked familiar. That was definitely familiar. The colour of his hair – it looked different to the usual dark heads of the station, that faintly recognisable spiky bright blue. It stood out.  
My vision followed him as he weaved within the crowds, up the steps and then disappeared. As I searched around the station for something else to watch, he popped back down, this time on my side of the station, and sat at a nearby station. Without looking too obvious, I tried to subtly look in his direction to determine who it was. How many people did I really know who had hair like that? My memory was really that bad.

Kouta Tsuchiya! That's who it was! I noticed it now, the way he ran his fingers through that bluish hair and tapped on the buttons of his digital camera. He scanned the station in a similar way to me, looking around for something interesting that would capture his attention. I noticed now that I was full-on looking at him, but he didn't seem to notice so it didn't actually matter that much.

Occasionally he lifted up his camera to snap something in the crowds of people, but I didn't notice exactly what. Everything was moving way too fast for me to keep up. When my train came and the door stopped directly in his line of vision, I hesitated for a short moment and then walked towards it, getting stuck behind all the people that were trying to push onto the carriage I wanted to be in.

Without me noticing again, my eyes drifted around the platforms and then back down to Kouta. For a brief moment, he glanced up at me and we locked glances, his blue eyes looking into my dark brown ones. Then, I looked down at the floor, pushed through the crowds and climbed on to the train, taking a seat by the window and trying not to fall asleep.

At home, I opened up the package from Akihisa and Akira's parents. They were working in the United States at the moment, although they moved around every eight to ten months and from when I was little I remember that they used to send back all manner of interesting things from the countries that they visited. I was happy that they still remembered me.  
I cut open the cardboard box and looked inside. Jolly Ranchers candy, Lucky Charms cereal. Graham crackers, Vanilla Coke, and enough American sweet junk to make me sick for at least a month. They also sent me two American DVDs. I grinned as I unpacked everything into my cupboards. I would have to e-mail them later to say thanks.

* * *

To: Chizuko Yoshii  
From: Karin Sato

Thank you for the amazing package! It was awesome. I'm glad you guys still remember me and I hope you're doing well in the States. I don't know if Akihisa has told you, and he probably hasn't because it's Akihisa, but we're in the same class now. I hope to see you guys soon! Have fun and work hard with whatever you're doing!

Love, Karin.

To: ''Schön Shimada''  
From: Karin Sato

Hey, it's me, Karin.

Thanks for the address. I'll e-mail you that kanji thing that I was telling you about today at school. Just one thing… I think you left a pretty weird picture in my handbag when you gave me your address. Was it you that had the picture of Akihisa in a pink frilly dress? 'Cause if it's yours, then I'll give it back to you tomorrow.

Would you happen to know what Kouta does in his spare time?

To: Karin Sato  
From: ''Schön Shimada''

Thanks. I really don't get all the lines and crap. Anyway, yeah that's my picture. I'll explain or whatever, but oh my God this is so embarrassing. Talking of Kouta, in his spare time he probably does what he does at school – take panty shots and sell them at an extortionate price. Why do you ask? I'll see you tomorrow.

Minami

* * *

So Kouta does take a lot of panty shots, huh? Pushing the thought out of my mind, I sat down and watched some TV whilst doing my homework. I didn't have the time to be dealing with perverted boys and pink frilly dresses when I still had a ton of pages of work to do if I wanted to get a half-decent score on the supplementary exam in a couple of weeks.

Picking on the Jolly Ranchers, I tried filling in the math questions. No good. Back to Modern Japanese – something that I understand. I did a couple of pages and got easily bored, when my phone rang.

~ Akihisa ~

"Hisa-chan, hello?"  
"Karin!"  
"What?"  
"STOP CALLING ME HISA-CHAN. I called you anyway, because Yuji's round my house and we were talking and…"

"You planned to keep me on the phone until I grow old and grey? Was that it?"  
"No, we were saying that Shouko is going to take Yuji to the cinema this weekend and we're all going to go with him to make sure he doesn't get too hurt. Do you want to come? You love films, right?"  
"HELL YEAH I LOVE FILMS! But… who is Shouko, and why is she going to hurt Yuji exactly?" I asked, not remembering a Shouko.

"She's this girl from Class A who likes Yuji, but anyway, if we don't go, she'll like tazer the hell out of him, so will you go?"  
"Who else is going exactly?"  
"I invited Himeji-san—"

"Mm," I groaned.  
"Shimada, Hideyoshi, and Kouta," Akihisa finished. _Fine then. _"So you'll definitely come?"  
"Yes, yes, I'll go. Are you taking us all for crepes afterwards, yes, Hisa-chan?"  
"He is now," I heard Yuji's voice in the background after I finished speaking.  
"That's my game money."

"I don't give a damn," I smiled, knowing he couldn't see me smirk. "You should be more selfless, or I'll tell Akira to treat you to one of her special baths and then you won't have any game money."  
"Why does her treating me to a creepy bath mean I'll get no game money?"  
"Because then I'll text her and mention that Mizuki and Minami came to the cinema, and she'll take every penny you have. So crepes it is, yes, Akihisa?"

"Yes," he groaned. "I'll see you tomorrow."

~ Call duration: 5:04 ~

Why is it only quarter past eight? My stomach wasn't rumbling so I wasn't hungry even though I hadn't eaten, but it was too early to go to sleep and I had nothing to do. I curled up with a book, laid in bed and began to read, but there were too many things playing at the back of my mind.


	3. A Shock Confession and Mizuki's Pride

The next day, I wandered into school without Akihisa, sick of him being late as always. When I went to his house, Akira had already left for work and I knocked on the door without any response. I assumed that he was in bed, because it was definitely too early for him to be at school already. I walked on without him.

The sun was shining and frankly it was quite a beautiful day. I ran my fingers through my hair, well rested because I ended up going to sleep at about nine o'clock from complete boredom. I told myself that I would watch one of the DVDs that Akihisa's parents sent me this evening, instead of spending my precious time sleeping. Then again, I do love sleep.

Into the corridor, I changed my outdoor shoes into my inside slippers with their little white rubber toecaps and was going to go up to the classroom when I heard someone's voice from underneath the stairwell behind the massive cabinet of shoes that held everyone's ballet pumps and leather loafers that we weren't supposed to wear.

"Well, the thing is… Yo-Yoshii…" the high-pitched, somewhat familiar voice said. _YOSHII? HE'S HERE ALREADY?  
_"Yes, Himeji-san?" Akihisa's voice replied. _Oh God, it's not her, is it? She's so __**annoying, **__Akihisa. You could do so much better, and you're not even cute.  
_"For a while now, I-I have…" she stuttered over her words, and I could imagine her kneading her hands together trying to find the right words.

It was a good thing that no-one was coming in to change their shoes at the moment, because I had my back up against the cabinet listening to this romantic little conversation and I wasn't about to let anyone get in my way, or theirs, for that matter. This was way too interesting to be interrupted by some idiot wanting to change their morning shoes before it even got properly started.

"For a while now what, Himeji-san?" Yoshii said in his usual cheerful voice. _What are you , actually stupid?_  
"I've been thinking, and actually I think I… I… I like…"  
"You like what?" _STOP INTERRUPTING HER, AKIHISA, YOU IDIOT.  
_"I like someone, and…" _AND YOU, YOU SILLY GIRL, GET ON WITH IT._

"And who is that? Is it Yuji?"  
"No, actually…"  
"Because I always thought it was Yuji, and it would make so much sense if it was Yuji."  
"It's not Yuji."  
"Are you sure? Because I saw you give him a love letter."  
"I never gave him a l-love letter, Yoshii-kun," she said.

Now I was edging a little bit more across the shoe cabinet, closer to where it end and you could turn under the stairwell.  
"Yes you did! I saw it!"  
"No I didn't!"  
"I'm not stupid!" _Ha! You keep telling yourself that, you retard._

"N-No, but…"  
"Do you think I'm stupid, Himeji?"_She probably didn't, but if I was her, I would now.  
_"Not at all, Yoshii-kun," she said. _And she's willing to lie. The whole world thinks you're completely stupid, Akihisa – come on, snap this one up before someone with two brain cells to rub together actually does._

"Then what is it?"  
"I-I…"  
"You?"  
"I LIKE YOU, YOSHII-KUN!" she screamed. _Well, that wasn't easy to predict at all._

"Ha, nice joke, Himeji-san! I totally fell for it!"  
"IT'S NOT A JOKE!"  
"W-Wait, what?"  
"It's not a joke! I do like you!" she said, and I could hear her footsteps. Shit.

"Sato-san? What are you doing here?"  
"W-Well, Himeji-san, I was just changing my shoes here a few minutes ago and I dropped my bag and then I had to pick up all of my stuff again and it took ages and basically I accidentally coincidentally…" _Karin, stop talking, you sound like an idiot._

"Really?" _Not as much of an idiot as Akihisa, who just arrived on the scene.  
_Himeji wasn't as gullible.  
"So you weren't just… listening to our conversation?" she asked.  
"N-No, not at all…"  
"And you didn't…_ overhear?_" I saw this dark aura coming from Himeji now, like the girl spawned darkness out of her freaking pores.

"Only a little bit."  
"What was that exactly?" she said in the same low, threatening voice.  
"That you like Akihisa and you've liked him for a while now and you don't like Yuji and that Akihisa's an idiot," I reeled off like a machine, as the dark aura seemed to disappear and she returned to her normal self.

"And you heard all of that?"  
"Nope, I was just making it up off the top of my head," I said sarcastically.  
"Are you sure?" Himeji said. _God, you're a dumb person, for someone so intelligent._

"No I heard everything," I said, quietly. "I'm not deaf, and to be honest, you're really loud."  
"P-Please promise!"  
"Promise what?" I asked her, as she looked at me with a puppy-dog face and big, pleading eyes. I could now see why Akihisa thought she was cute.

"Promise that you won't tell anyone! Please don't tell Minami! Please don't tell Yuji!"  
"Why not? Is there a problem? Why don't you want anyone to know?"  
"Because it's embarrassing!"

"Liking Akihisa is embarrassing?" I asked her. "Why?"  
"No... it's not that it's Akihisa, it's just people knowing who I like that is the embarrassing part. Please, I'll do anything if you just promise that you won't tell anyone what just happened?"

"Anything?" I grinned, seeing a perfect opportunity.  
"Yes, do you want money?"  
"Oh, I have plenty of money. I don't know what job my mother has randomly just found, but she seems to be sending home more and more money, so I don't need it."

"What do you want?"  
"What can you give me?"  
"Are you going to ask me to bribe you?" she said, looking down.  
"Why do I have to ask? You just offered," I said, laughing somewhat.

"So you're really going to take a bribe?"  
"What do you have?"  
"I have a voucher for..."  
"For what?"  
"This nail salon in the West. You can go get a manicure if you want, is that okay?"

"I love manicures."  
"So if I give it to you, you won't tell anybody that I confessed, right?"  
"I don't know, that's too easy."  
"I'll tutor you!"  
"...In what?" I desperately needed tutoring in everything apart from Japanese, Health and Physical Education and English.

"Japanese! I'll tutor you in Japanese!"  
"Oh, Himeji, please," I snorted. "I could trounce you in Japanese."

"How about Math? Yes! I-I'll tutor you in Math! Is that okay?"  
"That's perfect. We'll start tomorrow."  
I took the voucher that she was offering, picked my bag up from the floor and walked up the stairs to go up to our rickety little classroom.

* * *

When I walked in there, I could see that Hideyoshi, Kouta and Minami were already there.  
"Karin!" Minami sprung at me like she was poisoned and I was some kind of antidote.

"W-What?" I said, still stuttering a little bit from being caught eavesdropping... although that did work out in my favour.  
"Do you have it?"  
"Do I have what?"  
"The picture," she lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "Please tell me you have the picture."

"Oh, yeah, the picture," I said. "I'll just get it."  
"Quiet," she mumbled. "I don't really want Hideyoshi to hear. Come over and you can give it to me in the corner," Minami grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the corner where Kouta was sitting. He whipped out his camera and positioned himself to just by where she was standing, angling his lense just so, so he could see... Urgh. Pervert.

"W-What about Muttsulini? You don't mind him seeing?"  
"He's the one that sold me the picture."  
"He sells pictures of Akihisa?"

"I've been told it's how he affords all of his school supplies, plus some new cameras. That little idiot is insanely profitable," Minami shook her head. I rummaged my school bag, found the pocket where I had put the picture and handed it over.

"There you go," I said. "Why was it that you bought a picture like this in the first place?"  
"Well, the thing is..."  
"What?"  
"It's complicated!" she yelled, and went to go and sit down by Hideyoshi. I blinked for a moment, startled by this sudden tsundere show of fierceness. I stood in the place where I was before. Kouta put away his camera. I looked down at him, and he looked back up, with those stupid blue eyes.

"What were you doing in that station yesterday?" I asked, sitting down next to him and making sure my legs were as covered as they possibly could be.  
"What do you mean?"  
"That station... I can't remember its name exactly... In West Fumizuki... You were there, at just past seven, when I was getting on the subway... And I saw you."

"I didn't go to any station last night."  
"Yes you did! I saw you, you were sitting on the bench, and you had your camera, and you saw me! I'm not crazy!"  
"...I honestly don't know what you're talking about," he said, giving me a brief nod that signified the end of the conversation and going back to flicking through the pictures on his camera. I looked at them as subtly as I could - the same way that I had tried to subtly catch his eye yesterday in the underground platform. There was one there - it was of a woman in a crowd. I recognised it, but I didn't know why.

A few minutes later, Himeji, Akihisa and Yuji turned up at the door.  
"Good morning, all!" Himeji said in her usual cheerful attitude. No wonder that she liked Akihisa - they were both so relentlessly optimistic and happy. I tried to ignore the feelings of guilt that were stirring in my stomach for exploiting her. At this moment, she just looked so kind and innocent, she was the kind of person that I wanted to _protect_, not rip off myself.

"Good morning, Mizuki-chan," nodded Hideyoshi.  
"Mm," said Kouta. His monosyllabic replies were boring.  
"Good morning," I said. It was important to look like I hadn't seen them already.  
"Sato, did you not walk to school with Akihisa this morning?" Hideyoshi asked me.

"No... no, I decided to walk on my own and let him sleep this morning," I laughed as casually as I could. "I'm up earlier than him, and I know the way now."  
"Oh... okay."  
"Hey, Karin!" Himeji said, bounding over to me like a bunny on speed.

"H-Hi, Mizuki," I said.  
"Do you want some help with your math, like you said?"  
"What are you doing?" I mumbled. "I said we'd start tomorrow."  
"It's better to start as soon as possible," she said under her breath back, trying not to move her lips in the awkward silence that now filled the classroom. "So we can cover more material before the supplementary exams."

"Okay, let's start," I said, rummaging through my rucksack to find my math textbook and opening it up on the first page.  
"Himeji, when did you say you'd tutor her?" Yuji asked. "You could be working on yourself instead."  
"Oh, I just thought that I should help," Mizuki said, tossing her rosy hair from side to side as she did. "It would be great to see Karin improve her math," and something in her voice made her sound actually GENUINE. Man, I got this girl all wrong.

"She's kind like that," I added.  
"Well, whatever floats your boat," Yuji shrugged, picking a long, heavy-looking book out of his own bag and starting to flick through it nonchalantly.

"The first topic in this textbook is angles, parallel line theorems and circle theorems, with geometric proofs too," Himeji began.  
"Um, Himeji, you can have this back," I dug my hands into the pockets of my blazer, handing her back the still intact if not slightly crumpled nail salon voucher.

"You can have it," she shrugged.  
"No, I'll feel guilty if I do."  
"Don't feel guilty. I'll never use it. My mom does my nails for me every Sunday. It's like bonding," she laughed. "I don't need it, and besides if I wanted another one, I'm sure I could find it somewhere. You use it."

"Your mom does yours every Sunday?"  
"Yeah, and then we go watch a movie, or out to lunch or something. It's kind of like a tradition. I don't like losing touch with her," she said coolly, as it if was nothing big. I hadn't seen my mom for almost three weeks. Kind of _comical, _I thought to myself.

"Anyway, angles, parallel line theorems and circle theorems, with geometric proofs. Angles are a measure of turn," she began to explain, indicating the words that she was saying on the page as if she was not sure if I could read either. "They are usually measured in degrees. Do you have a protractor?"  
"I have one somewhere, I think," unzipping my bag and looking through it.

Until lunch, we went through lots of different angle and parallel line questions, and Himeji promised that she would teach me about circles and geometry in the afternoon. I found it unbelievably hard. Who wouldn't, sat on a mouldy tatami mat in a hovel of a classroom, accompanied by screams of 'Cheat!' and 'Bullshit!' from your friends playing cards, flashes of a camera and the muffled mutterings of a secret clan meeting occupying the other side of the room?

After school, I wandered home, wondering what to do with the rest of my afternoon. I still had the voucher. Grabbing my handbag in a similar routine to the day before, I went back down into the subway. It didn't expire for another week, so it wasn't like I had to get my nails done now - but I liked it. I purchased my ticket, sat down... My monotonous routine is getting boring.

Wasn't there anything better that I could have been doing with my time instead of flouncing around the neighbourhoods where I used to live like I really did have nothing better to do?

When we reached Atamahiza Station, I looked out the window, remembering the bench that I was sat on yesterday, remembering the way that Kouta was snapping pictures of the moving crowd. I shook these thoughts out of my head. Really, Karin.


	4. Asking Questions and Blue Raspberries

They were smooth, perfectly shaped – the epitome of hot. Nude. A gorgeous natural colour and just a hint of sheen. I looked at them, barely able to contain myself – this was the freaking _best._

"Do you like your nails, miss?" the nail technician asked.  
"Yeah, they're awesome," I grinned, waggling my fingers like I'd just got feeling back in them.  
"Well, that's free, seeing as you gave us that voucher," she bowed to me, only about five foot when she was standing up straight.  
"Oh, thank you."

It just made me think of Himeji when I looked at them though. I could remember the blush on her face when she realised that I had found out she liked Akihisa and how embarrassed she was that her secret could have been revealed to the whole school. It was cute. I don't know why Akihisa didn't just go for it, seeing as she was so pretty and smart. She taught me more about angles than my math tutor did in like three years, but then again, I was four, five, six…

Still, Himeji did look adorable with that hint of pink on her cheeks. Kind of like Minami. Wait… what? When was Minami blushing? I remembered now.  
_"It's complicated!"_ was what she had said to me, that morning, when I had asked her about the picture of Akihisa that ended up in my handbag. It wasn't possible, was it? It couldn't be.  
The biggest idiot in Japan ended up in a love triangle?

Little Akihisa. Sweet little Akihisa, with his unruly hair and his big brown eyes, grew into a unintelligent, lazy and somewhat unremarkable teenage boy. Sure there were times when Akihisa could show his serious side or be a little adorable, but compared to some of the more masculine or intelligent members of his year (Yuji, for example, or half of the members of the FFF Inquisition) he really just wasn't anything special.

Himeji. Busty, and pretty with that long, gorgeous natural pink hair – all the boys have to hold themselves together when she walks past, and with every movement, Kouta almost has an aneurism. She's smarter than most people I've met in my entire lifetime, and she walks and talks with a delicate traditional Japanese grace. She's cuter than Hello Kitty. Himeji is _definitely _something special.

Minami. Tall and willowy with these amazing long legs like a top supermodel and a I-don't-take-crap attitude to match it too. Cute, with that bow like a trademark and bilingual skills, tripping out math like a computer. Serious strength like a pro wrestler means that no-one ever dares to mess with her. She knows what she's doing with her life and takes care of her family, and she can freaking _cook. _

These two brilliant girls – they like Akihisa. Why do they like Akihisa? I think it's pretty obvious from that comparison that he wasn't worth their time. This was only just dawning on me.

I didn't know where I was going and I didn't know why. All I knew is that I was out of the nail salon, and I was going through crowds of people probably to buy stuff that I didn't even need. Something was playing on my mind and I didn't know what it was.

Did I like Akihisa? That definitely wasn't it. It was like liking your little brother – or a puppy or something. He was something to be cared for and looked after but romance was not an option. I shuddered just at the thought of liking him and the thought of kissing him made me feel weird, like I was committing a federal crime. It definitely wasn't that.  
It was because I wasn't in a love triangle of my own. I didn't like anyone, and no-one liked me. The weird feeling nagging at the back of my head was the fact that I felt left out of all of this drama, and there was nothing I could do. You can't exactly just start… liking someone can you?

_Come on, Karin, snap out of all the psychological crap. Go to the park or something. It's only about half-five. What have you got waiting for you at home? Homework, math revision and maybe a little bit of wallowing in your own lonely crap whilst eating Hello Panda. Exciting. Go do something! Be a teenager!_

I wanted to turn around and look around in the karaoke rooms, or go and look around in the shops that were still open, but my feet wouldn't let me. The only time when I realised where I was is when I looked in the windows I was walking past and saw the kindly old lady from the post office where I had collected my package before.  
My feet wouldn't stop. Not until I was going down the steps and around the corner into the platforms and the shops of the underground Atamahiza Station. I observed my surroundings, feeling instantly more at ease now I was surrounded by people, by crowds – I didn't feel as alone as I did before.

There were vending machines and a couple of convenience stores. I went and bought a bag of potato chips and ate them slowly, watching the world go by. I needed to get a better hobby – I hadn't made a film in ages. I hadn't done anything in ages. What I needed was someone new – someone that could spice up my life into something more fun again.

That wasn't the familiar boy that just walked into the underground. Meandering through the crowd as was his usual nonchalant way, he popped up the stairs and re-appeared, as he did the day before, on the bench next to me.  
I picked up the empty bag of potato chips that I had tied into a bow, and went and dropped it in the bin, right next to him, to see whether he had not seen me or he was just choosing to ignore my presence. Choosing to ignore my presence it was. You know, this guy really annoys me? He sits as part of the group daily, and yet he hardly ever says anything. All he does is take pictures of Minami and Himeji.

He doesn't even take pictures of me. With horror, I encountered the fact that I was somehow annoyed that he didn't even want to use me as a model in his kinky photography. Wait… was I ugly? Minami said that he didn't mind it most of the time – because Tsuchiya's just like that and she _took it as a compliment._ I, generally, thought it lacked respect, but now I was wondering if that was because I wasn't hot enough to get pictures taken.

~ Akihisa ~

"What is it, Hisa-chan?"  
"Karin, are you out? Did you want to go eat?"  
"Are you asking me on a _date,_ Hisa-chan?" I purred. I could hear him splutter on the other side of the phone, and it made me laugh. "I'm just joking. Sure, I'm hungry. Where are you?"  
"I'm in the North."  
"Why the hell are you in the North?"

"I had to go and pick up a package from my parents."  
"The package post office is in the West," I rolled my eyes, like he could see me.  
"I know that now," he said matter-of-factly.  
"I'll meet you by there. Go get the package, come to Atamahiza Station and we'll go get ramen. Okay?"

"Deal. Oh, and Karin?"  
"What?"  
"It seems Kouta's around the area too. He's coming to eat as well. Is that okay?" he asked innocently. Of course he was innocent. He didn't know how much the cerulean pervert annoyed me on a daily basis.  
"Sure, no problem," I sighed. "I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

"Yeah, that's right."  
"Oh, and Akihisa?"  
"What?"  
"Are you taking the subway?"  
"No, I'm going to walk."  
"Guess this is going to be a longer bit than I thought, then," I said, and sat down on the perforated metal bench. Right next to Kouta.

~ Call duration: 2:52 ~

"So, Tsuchiya-san, do you like ramen?" I asked cheerfully.  
"It's okay," he grumbled back, hunched over slightly.  
"How about takoyaki? I love takoyaki –they're my favourite," I pressed him for an answer longer than just two words.  
"They're alright," he shrugged.  
"How about sweet things? Imagawayaki?"  
"It's good. I have a sweet tooth," he replied. I almost fainted in shock. Was that seven whole words strung together in a sentence?

"Well then maybe we should go and get cake," I smiled.  
"Don't put yourself out," he replied flatly.  
"Is something wrong?" I asked quietly.  
"Nope," he was back to the monosyllabic replies.

"Hm, okay then. We'll ask Akihisa."  
"Akihisa prefers savoury food," he responded slowly.  
"Well, I'm sure I can convince him to go and get something sweet. Here, want one of these?"  
"What are they?" he asked.  
"American candy. I like the watermelon ones," I grinned, picking one out.

"What flavour is this?" he picked a blue one nimbly, peering at the English packaging. I couldn't help thinking that it resembled his hair.  
"Blue raspberry," I replied.  
"Thank you," he nodded, popping it into his mouth, rolling the wrapper into a ball and throwing it into the bin.  
"You're welcome," I said. We sat in silence for a few awkward moments before I wanted to fill it again.

"Is the only reason you're here to meet Akihisa?"  
"Yes."  
"Did you meet him yesterday?"  
"No."  
"You were here yesterday."  
"I know."  
"You lied… in class. Why?"  
"…I don't know."  
"You're complicated."  
"You ask a lot of questions."  
"Well, that's because you don't make any sense," I huffed.

"Neither do _you,"_ he replied.  
"Akihisa!" we chorused as the idiot came bounding down the stairs into the underground station.  
"Let's go!" I suggested.  
"Now."  
"Quickly!"  
"Must rush."

"Chop chop!"  
"Um, okay," he said, as we jogged up the stairs. I was frankly thankful that someone else was there to dispel the awkward conversation that we had going on before he arrived.  
"So, Akihisa, how have you been?"  
"Um, I'm great…"  
"How was your day?  
"It was good, I guess…"  
"Always with the questions."  
"Shut it, Muttsulini."

"Where are we going to eat then, Akihisa?"  
"I thought we could go to a ramen bar," he shrugged.  
"That's great. Can we go and get imagawayaki afterwards?"  
"Why?"  
"I fancy something sweet," I answered calmly. "Is that okay?"  
"Yeah, that's fine."

When Akihisa was walking towards his favourite ramen bar, my slow steps and Kouta's generally sluggish attitude today meant that we lagged behind.  
"You didn't have to do that."  
"Do what?" I asked.  
"Tell him to go and get something sweet. I was fine without it."  
"Ha!"  
"What?"  
"I just wanted something sugary. Don't flatter yourself, little blue pervert."

I quickened my steps to match Akihisa's, leaving him catching us up.

* * *

To: Karin Sato  
From: Nanako Sato

Honey,

I can't wait until you come to Osaka! Oh, I'm just so excited. Chiharu is thrilled as well – everything's all sorted and ready for you to come up! The train tickets are booked, as are the festival tickets. The computer broke last night – Fujiko (as I could have predicted) stayed up all night fixing it. You know how she is with technology and everything. Oh God, apparently it was my fault. I don't understand computers _at all._

I'm sure the 'exotic' dancers are fine. I'll tell you about my new job now! You know how I've been sending home more money that usual lately? I just got Fujiko to set up a direct debit thingy where I send you half of my wages. I found this excellent new job at a hostess bar in a nearby street to the house where we live – oh and the clients are such darlings! They pay for all my drinks! Oh, it's so much fun!

Are you doing well in school now? When are the re-take exams? Be sure to send me your results so I can congratulate you (or cut your allowance). I miss you so much, and I can't wait to see you! Are you eating properly? Remember that month where you only ate instant ramen, twice a day? Yeah if that happens again you and me are going to fall out. And are you keeping busy? Go out and do something with Akira if you get lonely. Don't just sit there on your own.

Just keep me updated! Fujiko says that she's sending you some kind of revision gizmo on a floppy or hard disk or whatever that you can put in the thingy in the computer or whatever. It'll come in the post. Chiharu says that she's going to cook whatever you want when you come up, just tell her a couple of days in advance. How long has it been since you came back to Osaka, honey?

Love, Mom xo

To: Nanako Sato  
From: Karin Sato

Dear Mom,

I can't wait either! I was surfing online last night whilst avoiding cleaning the kitchen and I found the most adorable duffel bag that I'm totally going to buy and take up there. Fujiko's so fantastic with technology isn't she? Does she still wear those little rectangular glasses? Thank her for the revision software she's sending me, or whatever you meant it was. Tell Chiharu that she should make homemade takoyaki! You know that's my favourite, Mom. Or have you forgotten? I miss you guys all so much.

You're working at a hostess bar? As long as you don't go on too many paid dates then I guess it's fine. There's been a definite increase in how much you've been earning then – what you send me has almost tripled! I guess I don't mind though. Can we redecorate the living room if we save up? I do kind of worry about you with all the pervy old men – but as long as you '_enjoy'_ it, then I guess that's what matters.

The supplementary exams are in a week and a half, not this Friday but the Friday afterwards. I'm studying hard with a girl in my class so I'll send you the results when I get them. I'm looking forward to using the avatars soon. I'll tell Fujiko all about it when I do – I'm sure she'd want to know. I'm eating properly – what are you, the Grocery police? Today I went out to eat with Akihisa and his friend so no worries on that front..

It's been six years since I've been to Osaka.

Love, Karin.

To: Karin Sato  
From: Nanako Sato

Honey,

What colour is it? You always did have nice taste in fashion, sweetheart. Fujiko's glasses are as, uh, rectangular as ever – Chiharu hid them yesterday and she couldn't see her own hands in front of her face. She said you're very welcome – she is a strange one like that. Chiharu says takoyaki it is – you two always did like them. And no I haven't forgotten, you goose.

I haven't been on too many yet! The clients are lovely, and they're not just pervy old men – they're very kind, or outgoing, or lonely. There's a range of people that come here, and the girls I work with are lovely. We'll talk about the living room when you come up and visit. I do enjoy it. I don't mind it when the men are interested in me – I find it _flattering._ And no man could ever be as perverted as a teenage boy. I'm the one that should be worrying about you! Boys are such complicated creatures, are they not?

Well good luck and everything. You'll need to introduce me to all of your new friends when I come down to visit next – we can go buy pizza or something. Does that sound good? I'm happy to hear that you're still alive and well, and everything is going as it should.

Six years is too long!

Love, Mom xo

* * *

Flattering, huh? Mom, you're so _right_. Teenage boys are definitely the most complicated, inexplicably perverted creatures.


	5. Paintball and Promises

"It's weird," says Yuji, on the particularly boring Friday which followed Kouta, Akihisa and I's outing. The three boys (and Hideyoshi) were playing cards at this particular moment, whilst Himeji and Minami tried desperately to get me to understand interquartile range.  
"What?" asks Hideyoshi, looking up from his hand to frown at the red-headed leader. I, looking for an escape from Math, looked up as well, to see Yuji with a pensive look on his face.  
"We haven't had a chance to use our summoned beasts yet, apart from the training," he says, almost suspiciously.

"Training?" I ask. "I never got any training."  
"It was on the first two days of school – the week before the transfer students joined," Hideyoshi shrugs. "But you may be right. It is a little bit strange that no-one has attacked us yet."

"Actually, though, is it?" Minami says. "Who the hell wants to get our classroom? They're probably all fighting each other for the actually good things."  
"The stuff we want," Akihisa sniffs, placing his cards on the tiny little table. I look around Class F – they're right, everything's breaking, falling off the walls, dusty. There's not even chalk for the board.  
"We need a plan," I say, scheming.

"What plan?"  
"Well, to start with, we need to spend our time until the exams getting ready studying. We have limited materials, but if we access the tiny budget that we do have, then we could fix up this place a little bit, get some supplies. We just have to ask the homeroom teacher. I remember in Class A, they decide what to spend their budget on. That's why they have such brilliant supplies. They know where to buy everything. We need notebooks, textbooks, actual chalk."

"Don't be so organised," Akihisa moans.  
"No, no, this is a good idea," Minami retorts. "If we actually study this week, we could ace those supplementary exams!"  
"Who would have thought that studying helps you in exams?" Yuji raises one eyebrow, an amused smirk playing on his lips.  
"And you, Karin!" says Hideyoshi.  
"Me?" I frown, shocked.

"You haven't got any training. You won't know what to do."  
"I'll work it out easy enough. It's just strategies that throw me. I have no idea what to do with tactics and things like that. Right over my head," I sweep my hand over my head as if to indicate.  
"But that's the most important part."  
"Huh?"  
"That's the most important part," Yuji continues. "You could be as strong as anything, you could be write novels and do rocket science and run marathons and do equations that puzzle the best mathematicians but if you don't know how to use it then you're screwed. You'll never know what to do – and your opponents will run rings around you. We need to learn strategy."

This was accompanied by a collective groan.  
"I have an idea. What about a competition?" Yuji suggested, that amused smirk returning to his face.

* * *

"What teams will we be in?"  
"Shotgun Yuji," Akihisa says.

"Ah, oh no, we can't have people doing that left, right and centre. We'll pick names out of a hat," Hideyoshi adds in a voice of authority.  
"Okay, okay, let's go. Everyone right down your names."  
We scribble down our names on to little ripped pieces of paper and place them in Minami's purse, where she closes her eyes and draws them out on at a time.

"The captain of Team A is… Akihisa," she announces.  
"Oh my good God please do not put me in that team," I mutter.  
"The captain of Team B is… Yuji," she adds.  
"Oh my good God please put me in that team," I mumble.

"And on Team A is… Karin," Minami grins.  
"Well, fantastic."  
"Don't worry. There's nothing riding on it… yet," Yuji smiles.  
"And on Team B is… Kouta," Minami reads from the paper. _Damn it, _I think, but I'm not sure why. "Hideyoshi is on Team A!"

_Finally, we might actually have a chance._

"Himeji goes on to Team B and that leaves me to join Team A!" Minami says. _Hmm, Akihisa, Hideyoshi and Minami. I can deal with that. _  
"Hey! That means we only have 3 people and you have 4! That's not fair," Himeji points out, the loudest that she's ever been without blushing or squealing.  
"Yuji does not go anywhere without me," Shouko entered, brandishing a tazer and speaking slowly.

"Looks like you have another member of Team B then," Akihisa sniffs. "I think you have an advantage."  
"Only because you're here, dumbass," replies Minami.  
"Tell me your opinion when you have a pair of- OW, MINAMI!"

"Cracks forming in the weaker team already," Yuji laughs. "So what's riding on this match then?"  
"If you win, you have to buy us all tickets to the cinema and then crepes afterwards," Minami winks.  
"Yuji, do not look at the winking vixen," Shouko adds. "The cinema. We could go see War and Peace again," an excited tone enters her voice.

"Okay, that's a deal," says Himeji. "But…"  
"If you win, you have to cook us all a home-cooked meal and host a party at one of your houses," Yuji retorts. "Does that sound okay, guys?"  
"Nice," Shouko says.  
"Brilliant!" squeaks Himeji.  
"Mm," was Kouta's contribution to the conversation, as talkative and social as he ever was.

"You're on. Team B are going to go and get the money from Iron Man and do the budgeting. Team A can do the cleaning and shopping," Yuji decides.  
"Why do we have to do the shopping and cleaning? We're not housewives!" Hideyoshi asks.  
"It'll be good practice for when you have to cook us all a meal. Just trying to help," he replies playfully. We fold our arms.  
"That's fighting talk, Sakamoto. We'll meet you at the paintball field on Saturday morning, 11am sharp. It's on like Donkey Kong."

* * *

We stand, facing them, eyeing up the competition, straight like soldiers. They brandish their guns at us but we are not scared. We merely whisper and share what little tactical knowledge we have between us. Kouta is in his full ninja suit, and paranoia creeps up on me knowing he himself could creep up on me at anytime. Yuji is smiling cockily, Himeji is looking nervous and Shouko just looks twice as scary as usual. The leader of the field blows the whistle, and the game begins.

The rules – there are no rules. Once all of the team is out, that team loses. Our plan – we split up as far as we can, and basically hide. They will try and creep on us but we have to be alert at all times. When any of them reveal themselves, Akihisa and Hideyoshi can kamikaze themselves to try and shoot them at all costs. Minami and I will stay lurking in the shadows, for the rest of them to try and catch us. Not the greatest – definitely not Yuji level – but it will just have to do. I run as fast as I can (which is pretty fast) away from the centre of the field and hide behind a little corner fence with a hint of a roof that doesn't offer much protection.

Just as I do this, it begins to rain. I slump under what little protection the fence can offer me. I'm wearing a pair of walking boots, warm baggy pants tucked into them, a long-sleeved black top with the thin paintball armour over my chest, big gloves, a dark bandana and a pair of goggles. I lift the goggles from my eyes tentatively, letting them breathe for a moment as I exhale as loudly as I can manage without drawing attention to myself. As competitive as I am, I'm alert as hell, looking around for anyone who might be sneaking up on me and then replacing the goggles.

I can hear someone get shot, the sound of the paintball making contact and then a splat sound where the paint drips down their clothes. I try not to rustle the dead leaves and branches that I'm sat on, but turn to look through the little gaps in the fence. I can see Akihisa, shot now repeatedly, dripping with blue paint – the paint of the opposite team. His whole face is covered and he's on the floor. Himeji goes after him to see if he's alright, but just as she's about to help him, she's shot in the chest with two pellets of green paint – our colour.

The direction that it's coming from is about 10 or 15 metres to the right of me. I spot Minami behind a fence, with her gun poised expertly, but as soon as Himeji helps Akihisa up and they walk off to the rest area off the field together, I see her stamp her feet and run further away. I frown but return to watching. That means that Himeji and Akihisa are both gone – the liabilities from both teams. For some reason, my brain says '_no offence' _but I carry on. Now the game begins.

I stay where I am, unable to do much, until I can see Hideyoshi run from the other side of the left, completely out in the open, streaming paintballs from his gun, one of which hits Shouko in the thigh as she's about to pursue him, covered by Yuji. Yuji abandons her, much to her anger, as she gets her tazer out in preparation. He's gone though, off into the distance so that I can't see him anymore, and Hideyoshi is behind the fence where Minami used to be.

That leaves Yuji and Kouta to me, Minami and Hideyoshi. It sounds easy, but it never is. I wait for a while. The last time I went paintballing, there was always something going on, but with such a small number, there's always a gap between the action. Especially because this particular game is about tactics and not about all-out aggression. I wait for what must be at least twenty minutes before I can hear footsteps, and they're not approaching me, no. They're on top of the tiny roof of my lean-to.

I prepare my gun silently, and as soon as Kouta drops down in his head-to-toe black, it's aimed directly at him. He's pointing his back at me but if he did anything, my reflexes are quick enough for me to shoot at the exact same time, getting both of us out – and he's at a disadvantage, with only two people left in his team. He looks me up and down. His reflexes are also fast as hell – so there's no way that I could shoot either unless I would want to leave Minami and Hideyoshi. I want to be in the game for as long as possible and there's no way I'm going out now. If we're going to win, I want us to do it by a long shot.

"I'll let you go," I shrug.  
"What?"  
"I'll let you go just this one time, on one condition."  
"What's the condition?" he's starting to consider it.  
"When you get shot…"  
"If."  
"No, when you get shot and _when _we win, I'd quite like to go and see that new action movie that's on. Make sure my ticket is for that," I lift up my goggles and wink.

"Cocky," he mumbles.  
"Well, are you going to go or what?"  
"I'll get you," he says, and I swear I can see a little smirk on his face before he hops off in his casual way to go and find someone else (Hideyoshi was long gone by this time, so he wasn't as clear to find as he would have been in Minami's old spot).

"Wait, Kouta," I stage whisper.  
"What?"  
"You promise that after this game, you'll buy me a ticket to that movie?" I grin. He sighs.  
"I promise," he looks amused as he leaves.  
"Accepting defeat already," I say to myself. _Ha._

After another short wait, I can see Kouta sprinting through the open field, trailed by a swift Minami, who's about to shoot him but can't get her gun in the right position. I know that I have to shoot him before he shoots Minami because if she's gone our advantage is gone too, and the two of us have no chance between the two tactically proficient boys. I run as fast as I can and let the bullets fly, and they splatter on his chest and all down his side before he can pull the trigger. Just as I'm thinking of victory, a tiny feeling of pain and lots of fairly hard paintballs hitting my side, chest, leg, and hair hits, and I slither to the ground, drenched with blue paint.

Yuji is smiling at me as I look up at him like a freaking Smurf, and he pulls his gun up again, and with precision aim, smatters Minami with the same sky blue shade. It drips from her bow and her shoulder, covering her torso as she comes over to me. Yuji thinks he's got it down now, you can see by the smile on his face. Double kill, he's thinking, celebrating his victory. And that's how it stays, even as he turns around and splatters Hideyoshi, just as he lets garish lime-green pellets fly.

_Victory is theirs._

* * *

An hour later, showered and fresh, we sit in the crepe shop (unfortunately buying our own crepes, though I didn't mind, because I was hungry as hell).  
"You were so _close _to winning though," Yuji laughs.  
"Shut up," sniffs Akihisa.

"Akihisa, you weren't even there for like the last hour!" Minami pokes him. "Why aren't you eating?"  
As Akihisa launches into a story about how he hasn't got any money (he makes out that Akira doesn't give him any pocket money but it's a lie, he just spends it all on computer games and perverted magazines), both Himeji and Minami offer him food but he's oblivious to their romantic advances. I sigh and turn to Yuji.

"Ah, we'll get you back one day."  
"What are you going to do, poison my food?"  
I raise an eyebrow.

"Okay, okay, don't poison me. On purpose, at least. Can you even cook?"  
"She can cook," Akihisa nods.  
"As can Hisa-chan," I look back at him grinning.  
"STOP CALLING ME HISA-CHAN," he retorts, as the girls (and Hideyoshi) laugh.

"In fact, all of us four can cook, but me and Hideyoshi already decided on the way here that we would leave the cooking to these two idiots and we'd do the party hosting," Minami nods.  
"You're going to be hostesses?" Kouta's eyes light up.  
"A hostess bar, oh, don't get me started."  
"What do you mean?" Minami turns to me. I tell her all about my mother and her clients and her hosting.

"She sounds like she's having fun," she says.  
"Yeah, but those places are seedy."  
"They can't be seedier than a high school full of perverted teenage boys," Minami shoots a look at Kouta and Akihisa.  
"In fact, that's what she said as well. I guess we've got it worse," I shrug and we both laugh, taking a bite of the crepes in front of us.  
"Anyway, you guys, when's this party going to be?"

"I was thinking next Saturday," Hideyoshi says. "Whose place is it going to be at? Who's got the biggest apartment?" he adds, and we all look at Akihisa.  
"Oh no. Oh no! You guys are not coming round when Akira is there. It'd be torture," he whines.  
"Is it because last time she told everyone about your fetish?" Yuji asks, as Minami touches her ponytail self-consciously.

"It can be at mine if you want," I offer. "My mom doesn't live with me, and it's a pretty big place."  
"Sounds good," Minami smiles.  
"Yeah, we'll all come round to yours next Saturday and sort everything out," Hideyoshi decides, making a note on his hand. "It should be fancy dress!" he thinks out loud, no doubt thinking of all the actor outfits he has in his closet.

"I'm liking this idea more and more, you know?" Himeji says. "I can wear a cute outfit!"  
"Me too," grins Minami.  
"But won't outfits look cuter if you're not so flat, Minami- OH MY GOD MINAMI NOT MY ARMS!" Akihisa screams, once again regretting making a remark about Minami's flat chest.

"Anyway, I have to go back now," Minami says, after leaving Akihisa twitching on the floor. "My parents will be expecting me. Thanks for a good day you guys!" she gives Himeji, Shouko and I a hug and then leaves the shop.  
"I think I'll go now too. I have homework to do," I excuse myself, hugging Himeji, Shouko (even though she scares me a little bit) and Akihisa (although even as a childhood friend, he gets a little nosebleed at the female proximity) and then leaving the place.

Later, after doing a couple of hours of Math revision, I decide to take a trip down to the convenience store to pick up some snacks and karupisu, when I spot a familiar blue-headed boy.  
"Are you stalking me?" I ask him worriedly, as he pays for his chocolate bar, a spot behind me in the line.  
"Nope," he shakes his head.

"Then why are you here? For the excellent convenience store?" I say sarcastically, earning a death glare from the worker behind the till. "Not that it's not up to par, it's just it's the same as the one on the next block, or the next block, or the next… you catch my drift."  
"I'm not here for the food," he grins slyly, and I see his eyes drift to the women from the strip club that are seducing potential customers out in the lobby.  
"Oh, I see. Perverted as ever. Well, I thought I'd say, when are you going to make good on your promise?"

"What promise?"  
"You promised to take me out to that action blockbuster."  
"You lost the game."  
"That promise didn't have conditions," I remind him.

"So when are you free?"  
"Tuesday will be fine," I nod. "It's cheaper that way."  
"That's fine. I'll meet you here about seven-ish."  
"Okay."  
"Just don't make a thing out of this," he says, walking out of the store in his own little gait, and I swear I hear him add, _it's a date._


	6. Poison Plums and PreDate Planning

_Happy summer everyone!  
I'm so happy school is out, for this year anyway!  
Hopefully this means more writing. But I make no promises :c I have to start work soon!  
I treasure your lovely reviews, and I love to hear what you think, so if you find the time to drop me a few words, go make my day ^_^_

* * *

There are many things that a girl has to think about before she goes on a date. She has to think about what she's going to wear, how she's going to do her hair and make-up and what handbag goes with these shoes – too smart, too casual? She has to think about carrying breath mints and smelling like roses and what to say if it gets a little bit awkward – the back-up plan. She has to think about whether to split the check or let him pay and whether to call afterwards. But there is only one thing a girl usually thinks about before she goes on a date, and that is the guy she is going on a date with.

Now I don't know if I spend _all _of Monday thinking about Kouta, but I know that a good portion on the day I should have been spending revising for the supplementary exams went on dreamy, confused thoughts about the blue-haired boy. In our slightly less worse-for-wear classroom (it had _chalk _now) it was something that played on my mind rather frequently, but not all the thoughts were always good.

To start with, I'm beginning to wonder whether he just felt pressured into doing this and didn't want to go at all. I didn't know what it was going to be like or whether he was going to just sit there silently for the entire thing, leaving me wondering what's going on in his head. I've never been so confused in my entire life.

I get my bag after we're done cleaning down the classroom at the end of the day, and walk down the corridor all on my lonesome. It's a short walk (albeit longer without Akihisa) back to my flat, in which I decide, just because I have nothing actually better to do, to trek up the long, long flights of stairs instead of taking the thirty-second option of the lift.

Sitting down on the sofa, I decide to take out some English work to give me something for my mind to do (apart from dwell on Kouta) but quickly get bored. I decide to log on to my e-mail to see if my mother has contacted me.

* * *

To: Karin Sato

From: Nanako Sato

Good morning my little peach!

I have to say that I've just woken up and so my reflexes (and typing) are very slow. I had a great night last night – spent it with a cutie who got divorced about two years ago, and oh isn't he just a gentleman! I was just wondering and I'm thinking about asking him on a date. However, I don't know if my boss would be too happy with me fraternizing with the customers. He definitely didn't seem happy when I told him that was the point of opening a hostess bar in the first place.

I've bought you some little things that you can take back with you when you come home from Osaka. I've got you a recipe book of all these lovely little treats and things like that, a new bag for school and a pair of shoes. And some chocolate. Because, after all, you don't eat enough as it is (I'll have you know that actually, I AM the grocery police. We have jackets) and every girl needs chocolate.

Why, you ask? I remember what it was like to be a teenage girl back in the 1500s. I'm joking, but you see my point. There's all the studying, the endless homework and tests, the having to deal with your family and not getting your own way and the diets and the wanting to rebel and… the boys. You haven't even mentioned boys yet – apart from Akihisa, and I don't think that he really counts.

On my last point, I just have to say that I'm going to stop giving you as much money when I send it down. The other money that I would have given you, I'll put in a savings account and maybe I'll give you some for your birthday. That's okay, right? I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.

Love, Mom xo

P.S. The e-mail provider people have updated their instant messaging thingy. You should try it!

To: Nanako Sato

From: Karin Sato

Good afternoon, my strange little mother.

I suppose that is indeed the point of a hostess bar. And I'm happy that you've found someone who frequents those kind of places who isn't a complete pervert – on first impressions anyway. I'm telling you to watch out, though, because everyone has hidden qualities, and he could be just like the rest. However, I am incredibly happy for you. Ask him out on a date – screw your boss. Well maybe if you did, he'd let you go on a date XD

They sound lovely. I should bring you up some things from Fumizuki that you like. The special rosewater perfume that you can't find anywhere else, your favourite. We could have a swap! Oh my God, Mom, you always have the best ideas, I'm serious. I'll go hunting to all the shops that you used to go to when you lived down here, so I'll find all of the things that I bet you miss in Osaka!

Oh, back in the 1500s. I'm oh so delighted (or not) to tell you that, trust me, things haven't got any better since all those years ago. There's still definitely lots of tests – in fact there is one on Friday, that I was actually trying to study for until you distracted me with your thoughts of chocolate and pretty pairs of shoes. If I get a 10 in every single subject, then I will also be blaming you. ;) However, I feel that talking about boys with you is unnecessary. Everyone knows I frequent convents instead of créperies.

And to respond to your last point, that's fine. There was too much of it lying around anyway, until I started using it to light the cooker when it was broke, and as toilet paper and the like. I'm joking, Mom. I can feel the steam coming out of your nose through the computer screen. Roll on my birthday. And feisty… putting your foot down now are we?

Love, Karin.

* * *

16:20PM: Minami, we have an urgent situation. I need a new outfit. Meet me in the city centre and donburi is on me.

16:22PM: I'll meet you by Daimaru at 4:45. Donburi _is_ urgent, plus I need to pick up a few things. Why a new outfit all of a sudden?

16:23PM: I'll explain when I see you.

* * *

I stand in the doorway of Daimaru, avoiding the gaze of the doorman who is looking at me like I was a juvenile delinquent. The street is busy, but amongst all of the dark hair, I manage to spot Minami's purple ponytail bouncing along as she weaves deftly through the crowds of people. She comes up to me, a rosy flush spreading across her cheeks.

"My God, you should have seen the queues by the train station," she puffs. "I had to practically run to get through them all. I felt like an American football player."

"Well, you're here now," I shrug. "And we have important shopping to do. I need a cute new outfit – maybe like a dress or something."  
"Why? Is something big going on?"  
"Kinda." I mumble.  
"Well, let's go get a coffee and you can tell me all about it."  
"Coffee, shopping and then donburi? You're going to make me fat."  
"Just before whatever big event is going on? I wouldn't dream of it."

We sit in the nearest coffee shop, and Minami sips delicately on an iced latte as I cradle a cup of peppermint tea.

"So what is it? What makes you want to go shopping all of a sudden?"  
"Well, you know that I never need an excuse to go shopping, but as you guessed, something actually is happening, tomorrow."  
"Tomorrow? Aren't you running a little bit late?"  
"Well, I only made plans yesterday."  
"What's happening?"  
"I'm going to the cinema."  
"The cinema? You're desperate to buy a new dress to go to the cinema?"  
"With a guy. I'm going to the cinema with a guy – that's why I want to get a new dress, not just the cinema," I laugh.

"Well, you better make sure it's not too short. What if the guy turns out to be like Kouta?" she chuckles, sucking through her straw. I laugh awkwardly as a flush fills my cheeks. _Oh my God, _my subconscious screams. _She can read you like a book.  
_"What if, eh?" I stop giggling.  
"I'm just joking. Kouta getting a date," Minami grins. "It's almost unthinkable."

"I'll say," I roll my eyes, trying to eradicate the pink from my face.  
"But a hot date, how interesting," she enunciates the word very carefully. "We'll have to get you something super cute."  
"We should get you something too. In fact, we should get some fancy dress – you know, there's the party this weekend after the supplementary exams."  
"Ooh!" Minami says happily. "I know a really good shop that sells all kind of fancy dress. It's in the east, but we should go there after we're done shopping! It'll be so good. Ah, I'm excited."  
"The perfect plan."

"Right, let's finish up and go then. It's already twenty past five and we haven't got all the time in the world. I want to get something cute before that shop closes at half-seven."

Minami and I strut around the centre of the city for an hour or so like we own the place, amidst all of the socialites that are going for pre-show dinners and business men that are dashing out from the office for a quick caffeine fix, before deciding on one of the bigger, cheaper stores in the East. I buy a little black dress and a pair of electric blue tights and decide on my old, worn black high heels to go with it. I look at the different tight colours and spot one exactly the colour of Kouta's hair, but I decide to just bury the thought and carry on looking at other things.

We walk into the fancy dress shop and spend what seems like days perusing the different superhero outfits and animal outfits and all kinds of stuff, taking pictures and pulling funny faces for the camera. It's a good time and for a moment I forget my nerves about the day after. Luckily for me, after I coyly avoided answering Minami's question about the identity of the mystery man that I was dating, she seemed to sense I wasn't going to answer and dropped the subject tactfully. I wouldn't like to imagine the shock (and possible laughter) on her face if she found out it was Kouta.

After purchasing our outfits and getting kicked out as the shop closes at half-seven, we decide to walk home, seeing as neither of us live that far away. I walk down the pretty avenues of neat houses near Minami's place and admire the neighbourhood that she lives in. It's very beautiful – cloned little houses and brick pavements on the tree-lined avenues. It must cost a bomb to live here – having your own front door that leads out on to the street, instead of most people who just live in massive apartment blocks. Minami's parents must be very rich.

I wander back up to my apartment, and let myself in at around eight. It's warm, and I lay out my bags on the floor. We forgot to eat, so I put on the kettle and decide to have a cup of noodles and flick on the TV. The first thing I usually do when I get home is study, but instead of boring myself with such mundane things after such an amusing night with Minami, I turn on my laptop instead and surf the Internet.

* * *

Tuesday is a day that passes with little consequence. I go into school as usual, I see everyone doing what they regularly do, trying to avoid studying, and I get my head down and try to get as much into my notebooks as is humanly possible. By the time everyone is opening their lunches, my wrist aches like it has never ached before. Himeji looks at me up and down as I nervously poke at my rice with my plain black chopsticks.

"Karin?"  
"Yes, Himeji."  
"Are you okay? Like, really?"  
"I'm fine," I say, eating a mouthful as delicately as I can muster. It gets stuck in my dry throat and makes me cough, and Himeji examines me even more as I splutter.

"What's wrong?" she says more softly, edging up next to me. "Do you want to talk about it?"  
"No, it's nothing. I'm just," I cough slightly more overdramatically than I originally intended, "I'm just getting a little sick, that's all. Maybe I'm coming down with something," I shake my head. "Is there a bug going around?" I stop myself from saying anymore. _You're overdoing it, Karin, _my head says. Kouta looks at me with a puzzled, slightly concerned expression as I swallow the rice and fake sneeze for Himeji's benefit.

"Everybody," Himeji's voice rings out shrilly across the classroom. "Sato-chan is sick. She's sick. We have to look after her."  
"I'm not having her spread her poisonous germs to me!" Akihisa says in mock horror (or real horror?) but quickly carries on eating his pork cutlet. "Are you mad? I'm not looking after her, you crazy woman."  
"Akihisa, don't be an idiot," Minami hits him playfully, and then blushes when he turns around to look at her.

"Yuji. I made you a bento," said a deep, smooth voice, and I turn around to see Shouko at the door, holding a prettily-wrapped little lunchbox with blue silk. "I got up in the morning and made it for you myself. This is what will happen when we are married, Yuji."

"Oh my God."  
"It has rice, pickled cucumbers, salmon, an umeboshi… Yuji, eat it."  
"Shouko, I already ate."  
"Eat it anyway."

"Shouko, I…"  
"Eat, Yuji."  
"Okay," he says reluctantly, playing with the umeboshi and then placing a piece into his mouth. "It's very good, Shouko."  
"You like the umeboshi, Yuji?"  
"Yes, Shouko."

"What the hell is going on?" Minami says under her breath in her scared voice, shuffling up on the floor next to me. "I know Shouko is creepy, but she's never been this creepy before."  
"I think she wants something…" I mutter.  
"Well, I suppose that we'll find out. The proof's in the pudding."

"Yuji, I brought you some pudding."  
"You see what I mean," Minami says, as Yuji tentatively tastes the pudding. Shouko glares at him with fire I've never seen in her eyes before until he responds.  
"It's good, Shouko."  
"What is she playing at?"  
"Definitely, definitely wants something," I nod in agreement, eating the piece of fried chicken that accompanies my rice  
"We'll see later."

* * *

I'm walking home with Akihisa when his phone rings rather loudly, a strange heavy metal kind of ringtone blasting from his pockets. He picks it up.  
"Hello? Oh, hey, Yuji. No, I didn't see anything. Why? What's wrong? Ew, that sounds disgusting. Stop it! STOP IT. I'll ask Karin."  
"What?"  
"Did you see anything suspicious in the bento that Shouko gave Yuji?"  
"No… it was just rice… pickled cucumbers, salmon, umeboshi," I think back to when he was eating it. "Why?"

"Well, now, Yuji is ill. He's sick to the teeth. He's… ugh… vomiting as we speak," Akihisa shrugs.  
"Shouko must have poisoned him. Or… she's just a really bad cook."  
"No, she's a good cook. It's probably the first one," I can hear a sickly Yuji, who is now on loudspeaker.  
"What the hell has she done?"  
"She's poisoned him," Akihisa says triumphantly.  
"Why would she do that?"

* * *

I'm lying comfortably in a towel on my bed when my phone rings again.

"Akihisa?"  
"Karin!"  
"What?"  
"She poisoned him."

"I thought we had already come to this conclusion about forty-five minutes ago, Akihisa. Why do you have to come and call me again to tell me the same thing?"  
"We know why, now. She told Yuko, and Yuko let it slip to Hideyoshi."

"Why?"  
"She didn't want him to beat her in the supplementary exams, and she didn't want him to go to the party. So she thought that he would be in bed sick until Sunday, and then those two problems would be gone."  
"That's so unbelievably crafty. Who would have thought she'd poison her own soon-to-be-unwilling-boyfriend?"  
"Well, it's worked. Class F has a new mission!"  
"What is it?"  
"Class F vs. Class A – Keep Yuji Well For The Supplementary Exams!" I can hear the capital letters when he says it.

"Well, what do we need to do?"  
"We must find an anecdote!"  
"No, honey, you mean an antidote. We need to find an antidote. But we don't know what it is – so there's no chance. We just need to baby him with rice porridge and hope that he's better by Friday. Get your little ass around to Yuji's right now, and make him something to eat."  
"What?"  
"I said, make him something to eat – something wholesomely, incredibly bland. Then take him back to your place and keep him warm. I'll talk to you both in the morning."

I hang up the phone and make a short list of things that I need to do before I meet Kouta in the lobby at seven. Dry my hair and put a couple of curls in it to give it some bounce, add a shimmery lotion to my skin, pluck my eyebrows, do my make-up, brush my teeth and calm my nerves. All that, and then I can try and go down to the lobby without tripping over or having my heart skip a beat – now it's only a couple of hours away, it's sinking in that I'm actually going with him.

16:34PM: Karin! Hello. Just to let you know, we're going to watch the new action movie at the Suikazura cinema tonight. It's me, Akihisa, Minami and Hideyoshi. Kouta's busy, but we'd love it if you could come.

I stare at Himeji's text for a moment. _Minami, you traitor._

16:35PM: Actually, I'm busy. Have fun though! I'll see you tomorrow. x

Oh my God, oh my God. So now all of my friends happen to be going to the same cinema as me, at the same time, to the same movie, as I go on a date with one of their best friends that they know nothing about. This would prove to be interesting.


	7. Rika Nakamura and Confessions All Round

_I am prolific! Woohoo!_

* * *

I look myself up and down in the mirror and everything seems to be perfect. I dressed completely in the dress and the tights to discard them for a satin-style material playsuit, dark blue with prints of little birds in a light golden colour. Underneath I wear little leggings and the same worn black stilettos. It looks better. Casual.

When I reach the lobby, I walk out and check the thin silver watch that's on my wrist. It's five past seven, and I'm sat by myself on one of the chairs that is placed there. I scan the rest of the lobby and find that the blue-haired pretty boy is nowhere to be found, even when the scantily-clad women come up for their night shift attracting customers.

19:07PM: I'll be there in a minute  
19:08PM: Um, okay?

True to his word, just as my (not very long in the first place) patience was wearing thin, he bursts in wearing a pair of straight-leg jeans and a dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up hastily. He toys with a thin leather strap bracelet on his wrist, and carries a little digital camera in his back pocket.  
"You brought a camera?" I ask, laughing. "Really?"  
"I don't go out without it," he shrugs plainly. "Are you ready?"  
"As ready as I'll ever be."  
"Do you mind if we make a detour? I'm sure you've heard that the whole group plan to be going to that movie – and after all, I already booked tickets somewhere else."

"You did?"  
"Sure."  
"Well, come on, let's go. I don't want us to be late."  
"We need to hurry up. We'll take the subway."

After a short subway ride, we stop off in a little part of town that looks very similar to Takashima. We run through back streets crowded with tattooed men and women wearing dresses that could pass as belts. They yell things, expletives, at every passer-by that walks by, and I clutch on to myself in my fear. I would hold Kouta, but he's too busy snapping pictures of prostitutes waving hi and gangs eyeing him up.  
"Nice," he mutters to himself.  
"What?"  
"These pictures. They're good," he hands me the camera as if that completes his sentence, and I flick through the shots he's taken. He's right, of course – everything he takes is perfect – it's an entirely new concept. However, this was not my original date idea.

"K-K-Kouta, I'm scared," I mumble. I'm pretty sure the guy who just looked at me was part of the yakuza, seeing as he was tattooed all over, from head to toe.  
"Mmm," he mumbles under his breath. I decide that I'm going to obviously have to say something drastic to get his attention, otherwise he's not going to listen, he's just going to spend the night photographing friendly hookers.  
"I think I'm actually going to make a film based on this part of town. Yeah. It's going to be great – but I can't exactly come here and film, can I? I suppose I might have to be in it too. I wonder what one of those dresses would look like on me," I motion towards one of the call girls and her dress (which barely covers her ass). "And a pair of stockings maybe…" I drift off, to find him putting away his camera and looking at me. I can see his nose twitching.

"Let's get you out of here. I don't think enough oxygen is getting to your brain," he says flatly, grabbing my hand, which sends a bolt of electricity up my arm. His touch is firm, but still soft, and his hands are not too rough. It's pleasant.  
"Hey!" I say, as he starts walking briskly through the streets, and the evening breeze catches my arm. Whatever it is, we're probably late for it.  
He said we're not going to the Suikazura, because that's where everybody else is going. There's about three other cinemas in town, and two of them are very really not applicable. There's only one other one in town, and that must me…

"Here we are," Kouta says gently. "Tsutsuji Cinema."  
Tsutsuji Cinema is a very well-hidden, quite expensive, artsy cinema in the back of town. It's hard to get into because the screens are tiny and the tickets for foreign subtitled films and new, original short pieces from amateur filmmakers. It's a centre of beauty and art, rivalled by no other cinema in a 50-mile radius at least. Once, my mother took me there for my birthday, and it was amazing.

"We're going into Tsutsuji Cinema?" I say, my voice quiet and awe-stricken. "This is like, my field of dreams."  
"I know the owner," he replies, and takes me inside. "I thought we'd go and see a French movie. Is that okay with you?"  
"That's fine. French is a pretty language."

We walk in to the foyer, a pretty affair with a chandelier in the middle. A girl with her hair in a dyed, massive blonde messy bun, smoking a cigarette, struts over to us immediately, bathing me in a scent of strong, expensive perfume.  
"Kouta… darling," she clutches him close, his head buried in her chest and her cigarette dangerously close to his hair.  
"Rika, hello," Kouta says flatly, detaching himself from her and wiping a strong stream of blood from his nose. "How are you?"  
"I'm fine, darling, how are you?" she winks at him vivaciously. "It's been a long time since we've met up."  
"It has, it has," he agrees, using a handkerchief to neaten up his nose still as she tosses her hair and stubs out her cigarette.

_Met up? Who is this woman anyway? And why isn't she acknowledging my existence?  
_"What are you going to watch tonight?" she takes out a small, over-embellished bottle of perfume from her handbag and sprays herself delicately, as if she didn't already reek of it enough.  
"_Amour en temps de guerre_," he says, in a not-that-great-but-still-cute French accent.  
"It's beautiful. Who's this?" she nods towards me rudely.

"This is Karin," he introduces me. "Karin Sato, meet Rika Nakamura. She owns this place, and she's been a friend of mine for a couple of years now."  
"Mm," I nod. _I'm sure she has. _"Lovely to meet you, Miss Nakamura. You own a beautiful cinema," I nod politely.  
"I know I do," she says. "Well, Kouta, have fun," she sniffs. "I trust you have your tickets. The showing is about to start."

She envelopes him in another all-consuming hug and when his nose is bleeding the second time he peels himself away, produces the tickets and we go into the screening, which is pretty. People are sparse. There can't be more than thirty in there. It's quiet.  
"Who is she?" I ask him, quietly.  
"She's Miss Nakamura. She's my friend, and she owns this place."  
"How old is she?"

"20. She doesn't run this place, but her name is on the deed. She does modelling work."  
"She modelled for you? That's how you know her?"  
"She did, around two years ago."  
"The pictures?" I ask.  
"They were pretty," he holds his handkerchief to his nose, as if he's expecting it to bleed any moment. "But they weren't anything special."

"Would you ever photograph me?" I ask, before I can stop myself.  
"It depends. You're _not_ like Rika," he shakes his head.  
"Well, thanks," I say, a little bit miffed. He looks at me for a moment, but then the showing starts.

* * *

It turns out that '_Amour en temps de guerre' _means 'Love in Wartime'. It's a moving story about newlyweds who get torn apart by a sudden war, with death and destruction and love, and oh my God, by the end of it, I can feel a tear in my eye. Kouta is looking at me with a smirk on his face, but I can see that in his eyes, he has a tear too. I have so many questions that I want to ask about Rika and his photos and what happened between the two of them, but this isn't the time. I decide to concentrate on the movie.  
When it ends, and people are beginning to leave, we go back out into the foyer. Before we step out though, Kouta seems to look left and right to check for the most wonderful Miss Nakamura, before going out into the fray.

"That was beautiful," I say, my voice shaking.  
"It's dark outside," he replies, to hide the fact that his is too. "You're going to have to be careful walking through those backstreets. Wouldn't want to be you right now."  
I look at him, alarm on my face.  
"I have to walk back, by myself… through that?"  
"I was just joking. Don't, um, let go of my hand though," he grasps for my hand nervously, and we go out into the cool night.

"I'm hungry," I say casually.  
"All the places that are open will be full of sleazy businessmen. Do you really want that?"  
"I'll probably pick something up from the konbini at the bottom of my block. Do you want to come have a picnic?" I say slightly excitedly.  
"That sounds pretty good," he chuckles for the first time in the night.

* * *

We walk back through the dodgy streets in comfortable silence. I know that once he comes to eat with me, I can ask him all the questions that I'm itching to. We go into the konbini, pick up some random assorted crap, your regular onigiri, potato chips, fried chicken, fruit juice and chocolate. Then we go up to mine and sit cross-legged on my sitting room floor picking at the food.  
"Can I ask you something?" I say, as Kouta pokes lightly at a piece of chicken.  
"What is it?"

"Why did you say that I wasn't like Rika? What went on between the two of you?" I say, aware that I sound pretty freaky, but not really caring.  
"We met up a few times. We watched a few movies, took a few photos. We made out. A lot. She was younger then," he points out the obvious and then shrugs like it isn't a big thing. "Not anymore."  
"Am I not good enough to be like her?"

"Ha," he coughs, then look me up and down. "It's a long story."  
"I have time," I check my watch.  
"That's just a nice way of saying I don't really want to explain."  
"That was just a nice way of saying that you don't have a choice."

"Rika's… Rika has no self-respect. She let me photograph her when she barely knew me, for God's sake, when she was older too. I was a typical teenage boy, I thought she was a bit…" he pauses for thought a moment, "easy."  
"So you wouldn't take photographs of me?"  
"Do you want me to?"  
"No," I blush furiously.

"Exactly. You're not… like that. It's a good thing. I don't have any photographs of you on my camera," he says, but then checks just in case. "Nope, none."  
"That's a good thing."  
"It is," he agrees, thoughtfully, and then turns to look at me for a moment. His eyes are so blue in the light that I feel a little bit short of breath, and then curse myself for being so feminine and flimsy. He turns away for a moment and looks at the floor.

"You called?" I said, the blush not leaving me.  
"You look pretty," he says, and pulls out his camera. The red on my face is replaced by fear.  
"I… I thought you w-weren't going… to…"  
"No, don't worry," he says, and then points the lens at my face and snaps the button down quickly.

I look at the shot he's just taken. I look so scared, you would think he was my attacker – let's just say it's not my most attractive expression in the world. Kouta struggles to keep in a snigger as I look at it and press the little trash can as quickly as I can, before bursting out laughing.  
"Let's take a better one," I suggest, and take the welcome opportunity to snuggle in under his arm.

He snaps it again, and this time there's a picture of the two of us, me smiling coyly and him smirking as if he knows something I don't. I like the picture, and he keeps the smirk on his face as he looks at it on the little screen.  
"That's nice," I point at it, as if he's not going to know what I'm talking about if I don't.  
"Yeah, yeah it is. So this is where the party is going to happen this weekend?"

"Yeah, it's fancy dress. But I have a better idea which will make it even better."  
"What's that then?"  
"Couples fancy dress."  
"Couples fancy dress? How does that even work?"  
"It's like fancy dress, but with couples."  
"Like?"

"Cops and robbers… Batman and Batgirl… cowboys and Indians, you catch my drift," I take a sip of the aloe vera juice that's on the table.  
"Sounds interesting. I suppose you want to go as a couple with me?" he asks, still smiling like an idiot. I cough so hard on the juice that I think I'm going to choke. It brings tears to my eyes, even. _Attractive, Karin.  
_"N-No… I didn't t-think… that…" I bumble. _Get a hold of yourself! You're supposed to be a sassy, independent woman! Not a stuttering little girl.  
_"It sounds like a good idea to me," he shrugs, for the millionth time that evening.

"Um… well… okay…"  
"Stop stressing. How about Himeji and Akihisa?"  
"No," I say, stronger than anything else I had said all night.  
"No? Why not?" he asks, puzzled. _Because I need to be a good winggirl.  
_"Because I already thought that Akihisa and Minami could go as a couple. I think those two would go pretty well," I nod.

"I suppose. But there's Minami," he says flatly, "and Himeji," he says more excitedly (well, as excited as Kouta's voice ever gets) and gestures.  
"Minami is lovely," I say, in a very unamused voice.  
"I know, I know, but Akihisa is shallow."  
"Coming from the Shallow King," I say sourly. I don't like how this is going.  
"All guys are a little shallow," he retorts nonchalantly.

"Well, Minami is pretty, okay? I think it would be fine for them to go together – just because Himeji has a big chest doesn't mean that Minami doesn't get a look-in with anyone," I rant for a little bit, ending up silent.  
"Mm," Kouta just ruminates quietly.  
"Sorry for getting so worked up. I didn't mean to – it's just Minami is my friend, and…"  
"It's fine."

"In fact, wait, what? I shouldn't be apologizing for this!"  
"No, you shouldn't."  
"It's not my fault most guys are just, ugh… my mom has a _really _big chest."  
That got his attention – his head snapped round so fast I thought it was going to fall off.

"Um… what?"  
"Well, my mom used to be flat as a pancake. Then she met my dad. He loved her just the way she was – and she got pregnant when she was eighteen."  
"So she's _young…_"  
"Keep on track."  
"She was going to go to vocational school – my mom is _not _the sharpest tool in the shed, but I digress… she had all the money saved up. She thought that she would put it off for a couple of years and then go when I was old enough. When my mom was twenty-one and I was two, we moved here from Osaka as a little family. I started a very high-pressure kindergarten – my father was determined that I would be top of the class. It was practically elementary school."  
"I didn't go," he muses.

"Anyway, I had trouble with a lot of my subjects. I wasn't the brightest either. My main weaknesses were math and science, so we hired a tutor that sat there patiently with me and tried to explain the basics. It didn't work. My father had an affair with her, and later ran off with her, leaving my mom twenty-four years old in a town that she didn't know."  
"What has this got to do with your mom's chest?"

"My tutor was the bustiest woman I've ever seen in my entire life. Instead of going to vocational school like she really could have done and transferred me to a kindergarten for working parents, she went and spent the money and got breast implants. Now she's a D75 and a hostess. She's the happiest I've ever seen her, and I know that she is genuinely happy, living with her sisters, doing what she feels like, but I know in my heart that she could have been more successful."

"Hmm…"  
"Instead of working in one of those bars, she could have been owning one," I chuckle. "Whatever makes her happy though I guess."  
"So that's why being flat is okay? The story ended with your mom getting a boob job."  
"Yes, which was a bad thing. She looked fine before. Now she's still beautiful, and she has a great body, obviously, but there was nothing wrong with her before."

"You remember?"  
"Photographs," I muse. "Not your kind," I glare at him.  
"Well, obviously…"  
"So, do you understand now?"  
"Yes," he says. "Sorry," he adds quietly.

"Ah, you're the first person that I've told this to," I sit on the sofa and stretch. "Akihisa knows the basic storyline, but not the ins and outs."  
"I feel trusted," he smiles.  
"You are, I guess. Sorry for ruining your awesome night with my rambling and yelling and yeah."  
"That's fine. I think it was kind of cute."

There's a little twinge in my heart. For the most part, it's a good twinge and it makes me feel happy – but it's tinged with disgust. Disgust? There is not supposed to be disgust there – not when it's getting late and I'm there with a guy that I think I like who's telling me I'm cute! What was this? I push it out of my mind and check my watch. Brilliant, it's around half-ten.  
"It's getting late," I say.

"I better be going."  
"I'll show you out," I say, and we walk down the corridor, to the elevator. There's another moment of beautiful silence in the elevator and I listen to its calming hum, when I realise that Kouta is looking at me through the corner of his eye. I blush furiously, when the door opens at the lobby and I spot through the corner of _my _eye some people that did not need to be here.

"Kouta."  
"What?"  
"Minami, Himeji, Akihisa and Hideyoshi at ten o'clock."  
"Crap."


	8. Coffee King and Gossiping

_ "Kouta."  
"What?"  
"Minami, Himeji, Akihisa and Hideyoshi at ten o'clock."  
"Crap."_

"What are we going to do?" I ask him.  
"Well, we can't just wait in the elevator forever," he shrugs. Out of sudden panic, I press the button that will take us up to the 25th floor, two above mine and just below the penthouse, to buy time.  
"We'll have to sneak you out," I resolve.  
"No, really?" he replies sarcastically.

"Come on then, let's go back down," I say, pressing the ground floor button.  
"I'm going to get travel sick," he jokes.  
"How are we going to do it?"  
"Well, they'll probably still be there, so we'll have to shimmy out past the door and I'll run away into the night, like Batman."  
"Are you joking?"  
"Yes," he says tiredly. "We'll just walk out without them seeing. It's as simple as that."

When we reach the lobby, we survey them, and see Himeji's bouncing hair and Minami's bow still browsing the konbini.  
"Come on, let's go," I say, and we go out into the lobby, walking as fast but as quietly as we can. It's late at night, so we are the only people there, and the people in the konbini could be able to see us very easily.

We're halfway through when we hear a voice.  
"Come on guys, let's go," says Himeji in her distinctive high-pitched tone.  
"No no no no," I mutter. Luckily for me, Minami is the first one to actually come out of the konbini, and she spots us instantly, with a look on her face that can only be described as real-time shock.

"Kouta?" she mouths at me. I nod sheepishly. "Give me a moment."  
"I know, I know."  
"Guys, actually, I think we should pick up some… chocolate!" she suggests in her normal voice. _I love you Minami.  
_"We already have chocolate, Minami," Akihisa says, obviously.  
"Mochi!"

"I like mochi…" says Hideyoshi.  
"Let's go get daifuku!" Minami says, looking back at me quickly and then ushering them all back into the shop.

"Thank God for that," I say.  
"Now Minami knows."  
"It doesn't matter. She's trustworthy."  
"What do you mean you don't have any daifuku?" I can hear Minami's voice, louder than usual, obvious warning.  
"Come on, come on, come on," I take Kouta's hand and lead him out into the street where I can instantly feel the cold wind whipping on my arms.

"Well… I should, um, go…" he says. There's just a moment of awkwardness before he steps closer to me, and embraces me tightly and quickly before I can say anything. I am just a little shorter than him and I can feel his warmth and smell his aftershave. I feel so comfortable that when he tips my head up I feel a little bit shocked. He looks me straight in the eyes and then lets my head drop back down to where it was, me slouching a bit so I can just fit under his chin.  
We stay like this for a couple of moments until I can hear the loudness of our friends in the lobby and pull myself away. I look at him for a moment, just a short moment and feel the weirdest feeling of tension.

"You better go," I say, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly.  
"Yeah. I'll… see you tomorrow," he says, looking into my eyes again for a few seconds before turning around and walking away, his hands in his pockets.  
I walk back into the warmth of the lobby. _Well, Karin, you've screwed that up, haven't you?  
_"Sato-chan!" Himeji says, running over to me. "What are you doing here?"  
"I live here?" I say, and I'm suddenly aware that I'm talking to her as if she's rather dim.

"So this is where the party will be? Awesome!" she says.  
"This place is nice, isn't it?" says Akihisa, his eyes wandering towards the dancers. Minami and Himeji give both him, me and the strippers death glares.  
"Well, I like it."  
"So what were you doing?" Minami asks me, with a smirk on her face. _Thank you, Shimada._

"Oh, I just went out to catch a movie."  
"You haven't got any money on you, or a bag," she says suspiciously.  
"I went with an old friend."  
"And he paid for you? Must be a good friend…"

"You weren't at the Suikazura. There is the university cinema, you can't get in that, and there's a porno cinema. You were at the Tsutsuji?" Himeji asks.  
"Yup."  
"Bullshit!" says Hideyoshi.  
"What?" I ask, worried.  
"Hey, Kouta! Hey, Kouta, come here! Don't ignore me!" yells Akihisa.

"Ooh, it's Kouta!" Minami shouts, waving. "Yeah, Kouta, come on, come talk!"  
"People are going to think I'm a prostitute if I stand out on the street like this any longer," Himeji glares at the floor and stretches in a position that makes blood gush from both Akihisa and Kouta's noses. Minami and I glare at her back in turn.  
"It's like we're not prostitute-worthy," Minami sniffs.  
"Not pretty enough to be paid for," I agree, oddly annoyed.  
"That's kind of true, I mean any man would be lucky with Himeji or Hideyoshi but Karin… it's like being with your sister and Minami is just like an ironing board. MINAMI! GET OFF OF ME! IT'S TOO LATE FOR THIS!"

"Hello?"  
"Kouta! Why couldn't you join us tonight?"Hideyoshi asks.  
"I was watching a movie," he shrugs, even whilst I'm giving him my best warning look. _Oh, you have definitely put your foot in it now, dickface.  
_"Where? You weren't at the Suikazura."  
"Porno Palace," he lies effortlessly. _You COULD get away with that._

"Makes sense," says Himeji with girlish disgust, picking at her nail polish with a look of horror on her face.  
"How the hell did he get into the Porno Palace?" Hideyoshi whispers to Minami, with one eyebrow raised.  
"I suppose he could pass for eighteen…" Minami copies his pose, with her arms crossed.  
"Anyway! It has been, well, really lovely bumping into you guys," I clasp my hands together and grin falsely.

"It's getting late," Kouta adds in his monotone.  
"It is!" I agree, in my, much higher, voice.  
"Well, it has been a good evening for the cinemas tonight, hasn't it?" Minami winks at me.  
"It's been a good night for _some,_" I mutter.

Kouta blinks at me. I wasn't aware he heard.  
"No, I d-didn't mean…" I say. "I didn't…" _I meant that I don't know what I feel, and I don't know what to say to you, and there's some kind of tension between us and I like you, but I'm worried that I've messed this up. I can't just go on and tell you, can I? Not in person, anyway.  
_"You smell good," says Himeji, randomly, to Kouta.  
"Do I?" he replies, bemused.

"Fruity… very feminine," she frowns. _Mine. Make Me Happy perfume. I've worn it every day since I was thirteen. It's mine.  
_"Must be one of the workers at the, um, cinema," he grins sheepishly.  
"Familiar," Himeji adds, and then falls silent.  
Minami gives me a look.

"Gosh, I am so tired," I say loudly, to break up the quiet chatter. "I should really be going," I finish with a stretch. Himeji snaps her head round faster than I can say another word. _It only takes a movement for someone to pick up your scent._ She looks at me for a moment. _Minami, Himeji, how many people will end up on the list knowing about this?  
_Himeji clutches me in a hug.

"Just making sure," she says quieter than a mouse in my ear.  
"We better go," Minami says, putting an arm around Himeji and taking her away, saying something to her as Akihisa and Hideyoshi join them. Kouta remains.  
"A good night for some," he says, looking at the floor, and ends with a weak chuckle.  
"I messed up," I shrug in his typical style. "Tonight, I messed up."  
"You didn't mess up," he brushes a strand of hair from my face.

"Well… I'm really sorry, I have to go now, but I had a really good night and I really enjoyed myself and I'd love to do it again and, well, yeah," I say all in one breath. He laughs.  
"You're insane," he smirks, "but again, yes," he nods.  
"Goodnight," I salute.  
"Goodnight," he mimics me.

* * *

~ Minami ~

"Hello, Minami?"

"Karin! I didn't talk to you at all today! What were you doing?"  
"Working – in class," I reply sadly. "The supplementary exams are in a day, pretty much. I need to get good scores."  
"Who are you?" she laughs. "But yeah, I get the point. I should really be studying, but my phone was just there and I couldn't resist calling you up."

"What makes me so attractive all of a sudden?"  
"Why don't you ask Kouta that?"  
"Oh, Minami, you light up my world with your comedic genius, honestly."  
"I am pretty good," she laughs. "But I'm being completely serious – even Himeji noticed."  
"Himeji's intelligent."

"But when it comes to romance, she's utterly hopeless. Her and Akihisa are meant for each other, like seriously," I hear a sigh from the other end of the phone when she say this. "But come on, what was going on?"  
"We went to a movie."  
"In your room?"  
"And then went back to my room, to eat."

"Mmm, I'm sure!"  
"Like a picnic party."  
"A party in your pants!"  
"Nothing sinister went on."  
"HE SMELT LIKE YOU."

"That's the creepiest I think I've ever heard you – and at eleven o'clock at night as well. You're going to give me nightmares, Jesus Christ."  
"Your perfume. I don't know – Mizuki's got a nose like a dog. But you get the point. You two must have been getting mighty close."  
"We hugged."  
"Are you going to go on another date?"  
"I don't know. There's too much to think of, as well as the stupid tension and disgust and…"  
"Woah, woah, hold up! Tension and disgust? Of all of the date feelings, I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be on the board. When did you get _those _two?"  
"It's a really long story."

"It sounds like a story for you, me and Coffee King. Tomorrow?"  
"That sounds good. But the thing is-"  
"I'll bring my math notes. I know you need to study."  
"No, no, I'm not doing math. Tomorrow I'm doing science."  
"Okay, okay. Whatever it is, we'll ace it, okay?"

"Deal. Now let me go to sleep, will you, woman?"

* * *

"Why do we have to learn all of this stuff?" I moan.  
"Who even cares about… classification?" Minami puts down her pencil.  
"Why do we take Biology?"  
"Why do we learn science?"  
"What does this even mean?"  
"Can you remember this?"  
"Do you think this will come up on the test?"  
"This is mundane."  
"Minami! We can do this!"  
"No, we can't," she groans.  
"We can, we can! I'll do you a deal! Let's study for half an hour and then I'll tell you all about what happened yesterday!"  
"Okay. Okay."  
"Let's get a cup of tea, too, I think that waitress is starting to give us evil looks."  
"Such is life when you sit in a coffee shop for an hour and don't buy anything. We need to go and get something to eat too."  
"I spend my money on food and the subway, entirely."  
"Me too – that's being a teenager, right?"

"Anyway, Shimada, get your ass studying."  
"I could say the same to you."

Half an hour later, Minami is getting very bored, and so am I.  
"We better get out before we get kicked out. We've been here for an hour and a half now, and we've shared a small cup of tea between the two of us."  
"I can't spend my money on tea! I have tea at home," I say. "I can spend it on takoyaki though – let's go get a boatload and talk about what you want to hear."

"So what happened?"  
"You make it sound like something scandalous. I worry that the real story will never match up to your expectations."  
"Don't worry. But seriously, what happened?"  
"Well…"

"What?"

"Basically, after/during the paintball, I sort of… blackmailed him into buying me a cinema ticket," I wince.

"Romantic," scoffs Minami. "So… you asked him out?"  
"No, I said that we would go to the cinema. To an action movie. At the Suikazura. He's the one that took me to a French romance at the Tsutsuji with Rika the tramp…"  
"Who the hell is Rika the tramp? And why is she a tramp?"  
"She owns the Tsutsuji."  
"So she's an old broad?"  
"No, she's twenty."  
"How… the…"  
"She doesn't run it, she just owns it. Inherited it, or rich parents, or something like that – I can't remember. I was more focused on the fact that she used to be Kouta's make-out and picture-taking buddy back in the _day," _I scowl.

"What? What does she look like? Is she competition?"  
"Minami, hold up. She can't be competition, because I withdrew from the race."

"Do you not like him?"

"Well… I think I do… but that's not the point. She has a massive pair and she clearly thinks with them."  
"I've never seen you so crude. It's brilliant. But maybe she's a nice person."  
"Mm."  
"Are you jealous?"

"Pfft, no," I laugh it off.

"You are! You're jealous! You like him!"  
"No I don't. If I did, I wouldn't have felt so strangely disgusted when I was so close to him."  
"Did you kiss?"  
"No, but I wanted to."

"Then why didn't you?"  
"Because I'm a Japanese teenage girl on the first date. Social convention."

"Did he want to kiss you?"  
"Am I a psychic, Minami? How was I supposed to know? And what's with the twenty questions?"

"Did he flirt with you?"  
"I have no idea. He said I looked pretty, he basically said I had self-respect and then when I suggested couples fancy dress…"  
"Great idea, by the way!"  
"Yeah, I know, but he… basically said he wanted to go with me."  
"DUDE HE WANTS YOU."  
"I'm making it seem better than it is. Do we have to talk about it?"  
"Let's talk about this disgust."

"I felt like, not just nervous, but like repulsed. I don't know why."  
"Maybe you should talk about it with your mom."  
"What?"  
"Even if she's not here, she knows you better than anyone. Think about it, at least, I mean, come on. She's your mom."

"Sounds like a bucketful of cringe to me."  
"Promise me that you'll give it a go, yeah?"

"Fine. I just don't expect anything from it – my mother's wisdom on men comes from a failed marriage and a string of hostess bars."  
"Sounds like she knows more than you do. Man up."

What was I doing here, sat in this ramen bar, eating, talking about my problems openly when my whole life I had spent my time holing them all up?  
"Well, screw it. It's one date. I'm not going to let it _define me._"

"Sassy independent woman talk!"  
"I'm going to have fun. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go home and study."

* * *

On Friday 19th April, students from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years gathered in various classrooms of Fumizuki Academy to take the supplementary exams of the first term. Seeing as you couldn't have really made much of an improvement on the exams before the summer break, most of the people sitting in the exam were the ones who flunked out, or had a fever… or fell asleep.

However, all of Class F sat the exam. There wasn't much chance that they could get any worse – but there was only one way that Class F could go, and that was up. Himeji Mizuki was the one who was sitting, ploughing through the work like there was no tomorrow. Yuji was also going through work crazily, but one could assume he was getting all the answers wrong… Kouta spent a little time on the basics and then concentrated on Health and Karin spent the time working through all that she could… and looking at Kouta. Hideyoshi and Akihisa were sitting looking out the windows and Minami was going crazy looking at all of the kanji.

Class F was doing well.


	9. Vodka Shots and Crazy Tension

I put the last pin in my hair and dust my face for the final time. It seems like every time I see Kouta I spend even more time in front of the mirror than I do usually – the boy was making me vapid. Maybe that's what happened to Rika – she was an independent young girl around my age (in fact… she was just a year older than me) then she fell for the blue-haired boy and became the woman she is today.

I, as a tayu, was ready to be the hostess with the most-ess. Akihisa was dressed as a baseball player, and it kind of suited his frame, but it wasn't really suited to what he was doing – i.e. cooking in the kitchen. Minami was the cheerleader, and the red outfit (with miniskirt) made her supermodel legs look even longer. She was helping him out by adding spices, tasting sauces and chopping things when needed. They looked cute – I was a proud winggirl now. Hideyoshi was grinning on the sofa, playing with the fixings on the table in his convict outfit. It was a jumpsuit, but it was kind of tight, and way too revealing for a man's outfit to be honest, but I didn't care, because Akihisa wasn't actually looking at him for once.

Even though we had had to actually pay for the night's festivities, it wasn't such a bad thing or a punishment that we had had to host a party at my place this Saturday night. In fact it was an excuse to get happy, get dressed up in ridiculous costumes and have a good time – especially after all of the pressure that the supplementary exams had put on all of us (well, maybe not Akihisa). The exams had just been one dark cloud since the start of term, but now that cloud had been lifted, it was time to party.

"What time is it?" I ask.  
"It's eight o'clock. Hey, did Yuji say anything about his plan to you?" Hideyoshi said, picking on one of the snacks on the table.  
"What plan?"  
"I don't know," he shrugs, "he just said something about having some kind of plan and he didn't want to tell anyone about it until he got here."  
"Then why would he tell me?" I frown.

"So what is Mizuki coming as?"  
"She's coming as a cop, obviously. What else would she come as?"  
"Prison warden?"  
"Same thing. What is Kouta coming as?"  
"A ninja, obviously. What else would Kouta come as?" I laugh, picking a piece of sushi from the plate that Akihisa was laying out.

"Who knew he'd be one of the culinary ones?" Minami raises an eyebrow.  
"Well, when you spend all your money on computer games and porn, you've definitely got to know how to cook. And Minami," I usher her closer; "you're doing well! Keep it up!"

"What do you mean?"  
"Akihisa has been talking to you for the last hour, almost constantly."

"He'll leave once Himeji comes," she sniffs.  
"You don't know that!" I comfort her.  
"The party has arrived!" yells a deep male voice from outside the door with a few hard knocks on the door.

"Yuji!" Akihisa rushes to the door and opens it. Yuji (in a very smart pilot outfit) and Shouko (in a very revealing air hostess outfit) arrive at my doorstep with Kouta (in the ninja suit) and Himeji (in a cop suit that pushed up her boobs and her hair tied back). They also brought with them four large bags full of alcohol.

"And Yuji manages to pass for 20," Minami grins, taking two of the bags. Of course Yuji could have passed for 20 in his sleep, with the muscles and the chiselled face and everything, but it was still pretty amazing that he had managed to dupe some poor convenience store owner into selling him a load of drink. And at least I guess that the losing team weren't the only ones paying for the party. Screw the whole punishment thing. They just wanted an excuse.  
"What did you buy?" I ask.  
"We got sake, vodka and lots and lots of beer," he grins. "We had a little each before we came. Let's get merry."  
"Fancy dress and a shit ton of alcohol. Let's get wasted, more like."

* * *

When I wake up in the morning, I can feel my heart thumping in my head and my mouth is drying than a Sahara desert. My throat is itching and I'm feeling clammy and gross and even worse – I have no recollection what happened the night before. What even… I just have no idea. Whenever I try and remember, my head goes blank and fuzzy and suddenly decides not to co-operate.

Hangovers have possibly got to be one of the worst feelings in the entire world. If anyone ever needed an incentive to never drink again in their entire lives, it would have to be the comedown the morning after. But still, people drink and drink and drink. I guess that says a lot about our society doesn't it? We never learn our lesson. I had no idea how my mom managed to put up with these pounding headaches pretty much every day, but I would have to find a way to get her to teach me without letting it slip that I got totally wasted when she wasn't around.  
"Come on," I groan.

I look at myself in the mirror. My hair isn't in the hairdo I put it in yesterday, and it has no pins, and I am almost without make-up apart from some kind of smudgy eyeliner. Instead of wearing my outfit, I'm just wearing a long T-shirt that skims my knees and I'm barefoot. Whatever went down last night, it left me looking seriously less bad-ass than I did before it all started.

_Right, Karin. Think! Start thinking about it, now, and start from the beginning. Yuji arrived at my doorstep with a lot of alcohol, shouting 'the party has arrived' and gazing at Shouko somewhat slightly-drunkenly-but-still-adoringly. We then sat down, played bad karaoke games on the console and drank until we dropped. And boy, did I drop. When you drop really hard, it's pretty hard to get back on your feet again._

Everyone else is just starting to stir, and apparently they must remember more than I do. Shouko is glaring at me from across the room for no apparent reason and Kouta has already left by the looks of it. Minami is just grinning over a cup of coffee she's already made herself and now Akihisa is giving a confused stare too. Hideyoshi is watching this all from the sidelines and looking fairly amused, and Himeji is sat with Shouko joining in with the death glares.

"Minami," I say, walking into the kitchen and putting the kettle on, "what the hell happened last night and why is everyone staring at me, either like they're confused on what I'm doing or like they want to kill me?"  
"You don't remember."  
"Not a thing."  
"Oh my God."  
"Should I remember?"  
"Hell yeah you should. I have a feeling before they all leave this house today somebody is going to kill you."  
"Are you going to kill me?"  
"No."

"Right, so that means that I haven't done anything to offend you. Can you please give me the play-by-play?"  
"Are you actually kidding me? That would be way too easy. I'm your best friend and everything, but you really need to feel the downside of what you did last night."  
"I would if I could remember any of it! Who can I ask?"

"Hmmm…"

"Can I ask Himeji?"  
"Would kill you."  
"Can I ask Shouko?"  
"Would kill you."  
"Can I ask Yuji?"  
"Doesn't remember, as far as I know."  
"Can I ask Akihisa?"  
"Doesn't understand."  
"Can I ask Hideyoshi?"  
"Wasn't present. No-one will tell him either."

I sighed. This was my last option, and I wasn't too keen on it.  
"Can I ask Kouta?" I ask as a last resort. Minami smiles.  
"That might be a good idea. You could go round to his, I guess. He'll probably remember better than anybody else. Doubt he could forget. You should take that T-shirt around to his too – he'll want it back."

"Oh my good God."  
"You better prepare yourself for a shock. Do you want Kouta's address?"  
"Um, yeah," I mutter, downing the rest of her coffee. It was with a weird feeling in my stomach that I realised I didn't even know where he lived – not even the part of town. Minami scrawls it down on a napkin and hands it to me proudly. "Hey, your kanji are getting so much better, Minami," I remark and she beams.

"Thank you," she nods in return. "Now go. Actually… go shower, get changed and then go. I'll shepherd these people out of your apartment."  
I patter into the bathroom, shed the T-shirt and then climb into the shower. The hot water does nothing to bring my memory back but it does eliminate the pounding from my head and the clamminess from my skin. When I dress in jeans and a long-sleeved navy top, I grab the napkin and glance at it quickly. Kouta lives in a very, very nice part of town – it makes Minami's beautiful place look like a dump.

I grab my keys, purse, phone and the napkin, and true to her word, when I go back into the living room, Minami has taken everyone and herself out of the equation. There's a note from her on the table.

_Got everyone out, albeit with a little bit of protest. (Shouko and Minami wanted to wait behind for you)_

_Good luck at Kouta's, and call me later, okay?_

_Love, Minami._

It's hard to read a note that Minami's written without looking at it twice, but this is one of her best ones. I resolve to not forget to call her, and head out to Kouta's without giving it a second thought. With a moderately-long subway ride and a little walk, I arrive in one of the nicest neighbourhoods I've seen in my entire life. When I end up in front of what the note says is Kouta's house, I see that it's huge – two storeys, with a big landscaped front garden and the prettiest door and windows I've probably ever noticed.

I open the gate, take my steps up to the front door in what seems like a lifetime and then knock awkwardly on the smooth glass panels.

"Who is it?"  
"K-Karin. Karin Sato."  
"How many of them do I know," I can hear him mutter. "Come in."

He opens it up. The inside of the house is slightly air-conditioned and opulently furnished with only the best fabrics and modern designs.  
"Wow, nice place."  
"Thanks."  
"Can you help me out?" I suddenly blurt out. "I really, really need your help."  
"With what?" he asks sourly.

"I can't remember _anything_ from last night. I just woke up, feeling like crap, and the girls are going to kill me and Akihisa's confused and Minami told me that you would know and…"  
"That's typical," he rolls his eyes. "What do you want to know?"  
"Why everyone hates me, would be a great place to start?"  
"It's a long story."

"Please tell me that you don't hate me too."  
"Why would that matter? Is that my T-shirt you're holding?"  
"Yeah… I was wearing it when I woke up for some reason. Here you are. It's not clean, but it doesn't smell," I say, and then realise what I'm saying, and then shut up. Kouta just laughs at me, but it's a bitter laugh. He's pissed off with me too.

"We were on the subject of you hating me," I say guiltily. I don't even know why I'm guilty – I just know that I should feel guilty, because obviously I have pissed everyone off.

"I don't hate you," he says simply.

"Well, that's good," I reply softly, when suddenly there's a knock on the door and I jump off of the sofa in alarm.

"Upstairs, the second door on the right, stay in there until I come to get you," he says, and I do exactly what he tells me. Up the stairs, second door on the right until… am I in Kouta's bedroom? The walls are light grey and the carpet is dark grey, and there's a double bed in the corner and a desk in the other one with a fairly expensive-looking computer and a stack of hentai games. It's rather neat and tidy for a guy's room, but I still manage to notice one of the porn magazines falling out from behind the desk. I go over to look at it with soft footsteps, hoping he doesn't walk in, and look at the picture on the cover.

Blonde with big boobs, just like Rika. _Will I ever measure up? _I push it out of my mind and sit delicately on the bed, noticing the cameras on the shelf and a little bottle of aftershave. Everything here looked like it had a place and that it was in that said place. It looked functional, modern and it reeked of filthy rich money. I stopped snooping to try and listen in on the conversation downstairs.

"Mom, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the charity event today," Kouta said. He was talking more naturally than I had ever heard him talk in front of any of the Class F people, but he still seemed strained and stressed.

"The party has arrived," she quoted the same words as Yuji had done the day before, and I winced. I knew that Kouta probably did too.

"You're drunk."  
"I'm not drunk. I'm tipsy. You're drunk," I could hear the accusing tone in the woman's voice as she slurred out words that blended into each other.

"I'm not drunk, Mom."  
"Yes you are, I can smell it on your breath."  
"That's you."  
"Okay, maybe I'm a little bit drunk."  
"Why now?"  
"Why not?"  
"Because it's the middle of the daytime and there's no reason for you to drink."  
"There's always a reason. Where's your uncle?"  
"At work. Isn't he always?"  
"Bet you he's _banging _his secretary," Kouta's mom growls. This was _so unbelievably inappropriate._

"He's not having sex with his secretary."  
"Banging," she corrects him.  
"I don't like that word," he sighs. "Go back to the charity gala."

"Fine, Kou-chan, fine."  
"Don't call me that. I'm not five anymore and neither are you."  
"Do five-year-olds get this drunk?"  
"Get out," warns Kouta sternly. "Get out now. I don't have time for this. Go to Sachiko's, then, and sober up. Okay?"  
"Fine."

I sit back down on the bed and try to act like I wasn't listening the whole time. Maybe Kouta knew just a little bit more about my life than I thought. There's so much more to this boy than meets the eye. His footsteps come up from downstairs and he bursts into the room looking exasperated.  
"Hello. I had a little situation."

"You were going to tell me the story."  
"A picture's worth a thousand words," he hands me his camera and sits at the foot of his bed twiddling his thumbs and looking solemnly at the floor. I turn it on and click to the gallery mode and then flick through. Most of the pictures are just mundane party pictures that you could see on any social networking site if you logged in on a Sunday morning.

It's only when I click on one that I realise what happened. I realise, and everything clicks. Why Shouko wants to kill me. Why Himeji's sticking up for her. Why Akihisa's so totally confused. And possibly why Kouta is staring at the floor and not talking.

It's definitely a bizarre party when the geisha makes out with the pilot.


	10. Heather Grey and Scheming Sato

"I… I…"  
"You don't have to say anything. I don't care," he says casually.

"You don't?" I say, a little bit hurt.  
"You like Yuji? It's going to be hard. Shouko's going to have you by the hair and Himeji's going to help her, so you'll have to be kind of careful."  
"I don't like Yuji," I find it hard not to laugh when I say it.

"Then why did you…"  
"There's this thing, Kouta, it's called alcohol. It makes you do things that you wouldn't usually do and it makes you lose your inhibitions. Have you ever heard of something called beer goggles?" I raise one eyebrow at him and he chuckles a little. It's a false laugh, full of hurt and lacking sincerity.  
"Whatever," he mutters. "I don't care," he repeats, his voice becoming more high-pitched.

"Wow," I blink. "I'll get going."  
"Don't come back," he says. "I got the message."  
"What message?" I ask, aware that my voice is becoming more high-pitched now too. As I walk out of his room, he takes his camera and snaps a picture.  
"You're just like Rika."

* * *

Subway trips seem to take about five times as long as usual when you ride them with a huge lump in your throat and itchy eyes for the whole thing. Passengers tend to look at you, too, when you let out a little sniffle every minute or two, but the truth was I was so heartbroken that I had been compared to that woman that I couldn't even speak or try to hold in my emotions anymore. It was the first time I had actually cared about a guy, I think, anyway - apart from Akihisa, but that really doesn't count, because I care about him like a little brother (which he practically is… apart from the fact that he's older than me).

I had no idea what was going on with me and why it had taken me barely any time at all to get so attached to these people and so wholly dejected that they were annoyed with me, but I knew that I had to get it sorted out. So I take the napkin that Minami had written on and I borrow a pen from a middle-aged man sitting next to me. I begin to make a list of all of the places that I need to go.

1. Akihisa's place

2. Hideyoshi's place

3. Himeji's place

4. Shouko's place

Kouta, check. Minami is fine, and I'm kind of avoiding Yuji so I leave his name off the list. I don't know what possessed me to do anything with him in the first place, but I was hoping that I wouldn't ever have to confront him. Akihisa could give me the other addresses plus straighten up the rest of the story for me, and then Hideyoshi could give me tips on how to butter up Himeji to help me with Shouko.

I feel sick to my stomach, but when I turn up outside Akihisa's house it seems to settle a bit. I like Akira, and she's nice enough to me. Not the same kind of nice that she is to Akihisa (I think only he and I fully understand that), but she's nice all the same. She always to use to update me every few months on how things were going at Harvard, and she's still super nice to me if I see her in the mornings too.

I knock on the door. A sleepy Akihisa answers wearing just a pair of boxer shorts and a white T-shirt, and ruffles his hands through his hair.  
"Mm. Karin, what do you need?"  
"Come in," shouts Akira from the kitchen. "Are you hungry?"  
"I've lost my appetite."

We go into the front room and I sit down at the low table, across from Akira, with Akihisa on my right.  
"So, what's up?" he says.  
"What's up?! WHAT'S UP?! ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING AKIHISA? I MADE OUT WITH YUJI WHEN I WAS DRUNK STUPID AND NOW EVERYONE HATES ME AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE YUJI!" I yell, exasperated. Akira blinks at me, stunned.

"Wait, what's wrong with Yuji?"  
"I didn't mean that I don't like him as a person, I just meant that I don't like him Shouko-style. I need your help, Akihisa."  
"What?"  
"I need addresses of Hideyoshi, Himeji and Shouko."  
"You're not actually planning to go to Shouko's house, are you? She'll rip your eyes out or tazer you to death."

"I thought that the tazer was saved for Yuji, but I guess not. I have a plan though – I'm going to get Himeji to go with me, once I sweet-talk her a little bit and convince her that it wasn't my fault."  
"I didn't know that you were so scheming, Karin. It's definitely a different side of you," Akira says, stunned again.  
"You kidding? She's always been a bi- WHY ARE YOU TURNING INTO MINAMI? MY PELVIS CAN'T HANDLE THIS!"

"Hahahaha… that's what she said."  
"You're disgusting too," he laughs.  
"I'm glad you two are still friends after all this time, even if my brother embarrasses you in school, Karin," Akira grins happily.  
"Embarrass me?! She's the one who made out with my best friend!"

"The red-haired one? He's cute."  
"That's not the point! It's my best friend!"  
"Are you jealous, Akihisa? You do remember that illicit sexual relationships with males are completely and utterly _allowed, _right?"  
"I remember! I'm not taking advantage of that rule, Akira! I like girls and that's not going to change!"  
"Girls… like older sisters?" Akira winks.

"NO! I'M CHANGING THE SUBJECT! Karin, I'll go and get you those addresses! Akira, sit here and shut up."  
"Fine. So, you made out with that guy? I thought he had a girlfriend. Pretty one, long dark hair."  
"That's Shouko – she's scarily violent and if I make contact with her solo until things are sorted out she will toe-tag me, no doubt about it."

"Sounds like a lovely girl."  
"She has every right. She's been in love with him since grade school and I just do that when I'm drunk and think it's all going to be okay. I've made a huge mistake and now they're just getting retribution. It's not their faults – there's only one problem."  
"What?"

"Well, on Tuesday, I went on a date with this amazing guy and I don't know what's happened but now after he found out this he seems bummed, in fact he compared me to this absolute hoe-bag and I don't even know what to do because I'm nothing like her. Not that he knows this, of course, he's just pissed. I don't know what's happened, I think I actually did like him – but now he's just annoyed with me and I've gone and ruined it all and I don't know what to do and yeah," I ramble in one breath.

"Has anyone ever told you that you babble sometimes when you're upset?"  
"It's come up in conversation. But yeah, what the hell am I supposed to do now? Do you think he'll ever forgive me?"  
"Of course he will, when he gets over it after a while. He's probably just jealous."  
"I woke up in his T-shirt. I don't know how that works, but I'd quite like to find out."  
"What kind of T-shirt was it?"  
"Um, what?"  
"A person's T-shirt can say a lot about them. So what kind of T-shirt was it?"  
"It was… um, heather grey, very clean, smelled of aftershave…?"  
"He sounds like a nice guy. Approval given," Akira grins again, giving me a massive thumbs-up.

"Oh God."

"I've got those addresses for you. Good luck. What are you going to say?"  
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry and I didn't mean to do it," I try out the words. They taste funny – I guess apologizing is not something that I do on a regular basis.

"Well, that'll work," Akira says sarcastically. "You have to get the pink-haired guy on your side before you can do anything."  
"Guy?"  
"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Akihisa warns me quietly. "I'm already living with her, I don't need her to make my life hell more than she already does."  
"Right, I'm going."  
"Goodbye," nods Akira.

"Good luck. You'll need it," Akihisa laughs. "You have a plan, right?"  
"Yeah, Hideyoshi first."

* * *

By the time I'm on the subway to Southern Fumizuki, I'm trying to recall exactly what happened. My brain is still fuzzy, but I'm hoping that Hideyoshi can clear it up for me _and _help me work things out with Himeji. I don't spend too much time with him, but he's always been willing to help me out because I'm pretty much the only person in our group that remembers and knows that he is clearly a guy. No-one that flat could be a girl – even Minami has more boobs. It's impossible.

Hideyoshi, his sister and their parents live in an apartment on the 19th floor – almost as high up as mine. The difference is that when I live in a complex just nicer than the average, with some amenities, the twins and their family live in the financial centre of town, in a sleek and beautiful place. I walk through the marble lobby and take the lift up to their floor and then knock on their door.

Yuuko answers the door.

"Who are you?" she sniffs, rolling up her 'Boy's Love' magazine and putting it on the side so that I can pretend I didn't see it.  
"Karin Sato. I'm a visitor for Hideyoshi Kinoshita."  
"Well, duh, how many Hideyoshi's do you know?" she rolls her eyes. "Hideyoshi!"  
"What?" I can hear Hideyoshi's deeper voice from the next room.

"Some Sato girl here to see you. Seems like she knows you."  
"Tell her to come in, and Yuuko, for God's sake, put the yaoi magazines away for one second, will you?" he sighs.  
"My reading material is my choice, I will have you know! Hideyoshi said come in," she adds in a monotone.  
"Thank you. You have a lovely home," I bow.

"Are you being serious? This place is a dump. We used to live in a three-story house," she snorts. "Are you in Class F?"  
"Yep," I smile. "I fell asleep in my placement test."  
"So you're one of those super-smart secret weapons like Mizuki Himeji?"  
"No," I scratch my head, "I'm actually, uh, still not that smart. I think I'd be in Class D or E or something. But yeah."  
"Oh, so you're still an idiot," she tosses her head back and laughs freely before walking off with her magazine, presumably to her bedroom. _Thank you, Yuuko._

"Hello, Karin," Hideyoshi smiles.  
"Are you pissed off with me? Are you? Because that's fine if you are and stuff, I just need your help because I'm in a really sticky situation…"  
"Hold up, hold up, stop babbling, Jesus. I'm probably one of the only ones who _isn't _pissed off with you – I have no reason to be."  
"Can you clear up the story?"  
"What is there to clear up?" he chuckles.

"Well, I woke up in Kouta's T-shirt to start with, and I have no idea why. I don't really now why Himeji is annoyed with me, but…"  
"Well, here's what went down. You got piss drunk, and so did Yuji, and Akihisa did too," he begins his story. _Ah, that explains why he's just so confused about everything. How does he still know more than me? _"And then you were thanking everyone for coming and you gave them hugs and then you hugged him and you both just kind of," he's using awkward hand gestures now, "went for it."

"Great. That doesn't explain the Kouta part though."  
"Oh that was a nice part. You started getting really sick - it could have been to do with all of the sake, but I'm not judging – and then you threw up a lot, down the toilet. Kouta held your hair back," he chuckles, "because it was falling out of your bun."  
"Oh, that's sweet."  
"Then you turned around and vomited violently on his shoes," he looks disgusted. "But it's okay, because he rinsed them off in the sink (they were leather boot things to go with the ninja suit) and dried them. They are still kind of gross though."

"Great. Brilliant."  
"Then he made you drink a glass of water and got you changed."  
"He… got me changed?"  
"Well, that's a lie. Minami did, and Kouta just gave you the T-shirt that he was going to sleep in and left. He was annoyed for some reason. Can't imagine why," he ends cheerfully.

"Oh God. Well that's brilliant. He is annoyed with me, I went round to his to look at the pictures this morning. This is just fantastic. Oh and by the way, do you know how I can sweeten up Himeji so that she will help me with Shouko?"  
"There are three things that Mizuki Himeji likes."  
"Yes?"  
"Thinking people like her cooking, being a straight A student and… Yoshii Akihisa."

"Hideyoshi, I think I love you."

"That's great, Karin, but…"  
"I could kiss you right now."  
"Don't you think you've done enough kissing?"  
"Alright, my love for you has gone. I'll get out of your hair now. Thank you so much!"  
"And don't wait too long either! She'll stew and get even more mad."

"Don't worry, I won't. Have a nice day, Hideyoshi!"  
"You too, good luck!"

* * *

My plan is ready to be put into action. _Sato, let's go._

"Himeji, it's me, Karin. Please let me in," I say, knocking on the door. "I have something for you."  
"Um, okay," I can hear her unlock the door and open it on to her place. It's traditionally Japanese and rather modest, and I take off my shoes and walk into the main room.  
"I know you're upset with me, but will you hear me out a minute? I need a chance to explain my actions, and I'd really like you to help me."

"Do you really deserve help?"  
"No, but I know you always stick up for your friends – and I think we're friends, Himeji, aren't we? So it would be really great if you could…"  
"I said to Shouko that I wouldn't talk to you."  
"Well, yes, Himeji, but I'm sure that she wouldn't mind, considering that I have something for you."

"What is it?"  
"It's a set of textbooks that recently came out at the mall," I take them from the bag and place them on the table. I remember asking for a plain bag on purpose so that it wouldn't look like I had bought them. _These babies bankrupted me. 800 yen each, and I got three. _"I found them at my place."  
"You've given me a gift?"  
"Oh no, Himeji, I don't like to buy respect. I called up Akihisa this morning and it seems that he was going to give them to you but he forgot after he got drunk and fell asleep. So, naturally, I took them over to you as a kind gesture. I'll tell him you were happy to accept them, no?" I smile at her as fake and bright as I possibly can, because even though the smile isn't sincere, my need for her to forgive me is. Himeji is so bright and lovely, it would be horrible to not have her in my life.

"Oh, he is so cute!" she gushes. "Oh, I'll just have to thank him."  
"That won't be necessary. He already said it was fine, and that you should enjoy them and do your best. He said that even if you weren't in Class A, you deserved the best, and that's why you should have the best textbooks to help you with your studying."  
"That's so sweet."  
"Ah, I know."

"Whilst you're here, would you like to sample some of the cookies that I just baked?" she offers me with newfound kindness in her voice. _Two out of three down. Only one to go. I'm a goner. _

"That would be lovely, Himeji! What flavour are they?"  
"Chocolate and raisin," she says happily, and goes off into the kitchen to get some.

I grit my teeth and try to bear it when she comes in with a tray of delicious-looking and smelling cookies on a pretty tray, with a couple of napkins and a glass of lemonade.

"Wow, Himeji, you really went all out."  
"You must be hungry. It looks like you've been busy going to the mall and buying textbooks et cetera, et cetera," she sets it down on the table.

"What?! How did you know?! I mean… no I didn't, I found them on the kitchen worktop."  
"I don't get grades like I do for nothing, Karin. I think that I would have been able to work your little ploy out – you didn't really think it through, but I guess that you can't remember that Akihisa and Minami were very flirty last night," she sighs. _Minami didn't tell me that! _"But still, if you were willing you go to all that effort and pay all that money just to make me forgive you, and lie so fluently, I guess that means that I just have to forgive you. I was always taught that it was the right thing to do anyway. What was the favour that you wanted me to do?"

"Help me. Help me, Himeji."  
"Shouko?"  
"You got it. I wanna go by old age, man. I don't wanna be electrocuted or hung by my toes or _burned at the stake,_" I wince.  
"Well, I owe you 2400 yen anyway, so I guess this is the least I can do."  
"Please, it's on me."

"As is this favour, and of course, these cookies."

I look up at her and she's smiling so kindly down at me I just can't help but love her. Himeji is so adorable it's unreal. But of course, you can't forget one thing.

That's when I passed out. River Styx, here I come. Method of death: chocolate and raisin cookies.


	11. Night Nurse and Cell Phone Charms

"Shouko," Himeji yells. "It's us. Please let us in."  
"'Us'?" Shouko unlatches the security chain and turns up her nose. I lean a little bit closer to listen to what she has to say. "Who is 'us'?"

"Me and… me and Karin," Himeji says awkwardly. The door is slammed shut instantly, and it hits me in the nose.  
"Are you bleeding… Karin?" Shouko asks.  
"Yes."  
"Good!"

"Well, that wasn't a good approach," Himeji offers me a handkerchief and I mop up my nose as delicately as I can. "We need to find things that she likes."  
"I don't know what she likes."  
"There are three things that Kirishima Shouko likes. Cute cell-phone charms, historical dramas and… Yuuji Sakamoto."

"Two out of three I can probably manage. I'm not so sure about the third one."  
"Of course you can manage the third one! You'll just blackmail him."  
"I don't want to blackmail him. I'm sure the threat of Shouko's punishment is blackmail enough to make him want to come and apologize."  
"Well we have another stop on our mission. The Sakamoto residence."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I don't want to, I don't want to! Don't make me, don't make me, Himeji, please don't make me, please help me, you do it, you do it, please, please! I'll do anything, I don't want to!"  
"You'll do anything you don't want to?"  
"I mean, I'll do anything because I don't want to!"  
"Don't want to what?"  
"Go to Yuji's. You do it, please, please, please!"

"I won't know what to say."  
"I'll write a note or something! We'll go to yours, I'll write a note, please, Himeji! I'll… I'll give Akihisa your love letter!" I exclaim. _Even though I really don't want to because I want him to like Minami, not you, even though you're pretty awesome, Himeji. _

"You will?"  
"I will," I nod enthusiastically. She tips her head to the side, thinks for a moment and then sighs.  
"Fine, I'll help you."

"So have you rehearsed what you're going to say, Himeji?"  
"I'm going to say that he has to apologise to Shouko because it was clearly his fault for taking advantage of a girl who was drunker than him, and if he doesn't then she will tazer him into next week, and that he should promise to take her on a date. And give her a cell-phone charm. And take her to the movies to see a historical drama."

"Perfect. Oh, here's the cell-phone charm by the way. Make sure that he drops in that it _wasn't my fault,_ Shouko loves him so much that he'll get off lighter than I will, and tell him that I will… I will… I won't report him to the FFF Inquisition for making a move on a girl!"

"This seems really mean."  
"Ah, Himeji, soon you'll be able to sleep at night. I use Night Nurse, but you are so pure you won't need the help of sedatives. Get your sweet little ass round to Sakamoto's and thank you again for helping me."  
"It… It's no problem," she bows, and leaves her house, leaving me to sit in her home and amuse myself for the next hour or so when they come to get me.

I decide to ring Minami.

"Minami!"  
"Karin! It's like… three in the afternoon. How has your plan of making peace gone?"  
"Well, Himeji's helping me out, Akihisa is embarrassed but doesn't care too much, and Hideyoshi is fine. However, Shouko's still pissed and I'm pretty sure that Kouta is never going to speak to me again."

"Well, those are the two important ones to be honest. Shouko can make your life hell, and Kouta's well… Kouta. You're gonna use Himeji to help you crack Shouko, right?"  
"I don't like the word, use, but yes, that's the general plan. We've got Yuji in on as well, hopefully."

"Well then Shouko will be off the board and Kouta… well, Kouta's easy, to be honest. He's not a complex person, is he?"  
"Well…" I sigh. _Yes, yes he is actually. He's one of the most complex people I've ever met, and I'm not even sure that I know half of him yet._

"I'll help you."  
"Will you meet me later?"  
"I'm kind of busy."  
"What are you doing?"  
"Studying."  
"Studying? We've already taken the supplementary exams. Live a little! Come shopping with me and then sleep around mine. A new plan is needed."

"You've twisted my hand."  
"You make me sound like a horrible person. Please don't. I don't think I can take much more of that today," I chuckle, but like most of the laughs that I've heard in the past couple of days, it's entirely fake.

"You just made a mistake. It'll be fine. And I've already got an idea stored up for how you can win Kouta back."

"Perfect. I'll meet you at the usual spot at five-thirty."  
"It's a date."  
"Ugh. I can't stand those words."  
"Sorry," she laughs, and hangs up the phone.

I spend my time flicking through the Modern Japanese textbook until I can hear a loud knock on the door. Not ladylike… not gentle… not Himeji.

"Who is it?"  
"It's the freaking Queen of Sheba. It's Yuji, you airhead! Let me the hell in before I break the god damn door down."  
_Damn, he's angry. _I breathe deeply and summon all the courage I can.

"You're not Yuji!"  
"What?"  
"Yuji wouldn't be pounding on a girl's door, he wouldn't yell at one of his supposed 'friends', he wouldn't use that tone of voice, those words! What are you, a man or a mouse? How about you be polite and ask me nicely to open the door?"

I can hear him sigh from the other side.

"Karin, would you please open the door and let me in, before I do something stupid and hurt myself? I really think that we should talk about your _proposal,_" he stresses the last word.

"I think it's a fairly good idea."  
"I think I'm going to get electrocuted so badly all of my hair will fall out and I'll go blind," he says dryly. "Let me in."

I open the door and he kicks off his shoes, barges past me and sits down on the sofa in Himeji's living room.  
"Yuji, don't be angry. It's not that bad of an idea," Himeji tries to stick up for me, but I don't think Yuji is having any of it.

"Shouko will kill me. Do you not understand that?"  
"No, no, no, she loves you!"  
Himeji hands him the kitten-shaped cell-phone charm and sits down between us.  
"Yuji, if you apologise sincerely, give her this, and then take her out on a date voluntarily, she will probably not hurt you. Apart from poking out your eyes, and possibly not allowing you to speak to Karin for the rest of both of your natural lives. But it's worth a try, and after all, you're going to have to apologise at some point," she shrugs. "Do it."

"Don't think that I won't report you to the FFF."  
"That's blackmail. How do you sleep at night?!"  
"Night Nurse," we chorus together.

"Fine, I'll do it. Otherwise they'll beat the living daylights out of me, so it's not like I really have a choice is it?"  
"Oh, Yuji, you _always _had a choice," remarks Himeji, and ushers him out the door. "Meet us back here when you're done. Don't think about not doing it."

"I love this strong-willed Himeji."  
"Brilliant, isn't it?" she smiles. "Now, Yuji, go, before it's too late. And don't forget to say all of the right things."  
"I would, if I knew what they were!"  
"Go," I say strongly, and we push him out of the door. Himeji breathes out a big sigh of relief and flops down on the sofa.

"Wow, I'm beat. I'm gonna have another cookie. Do you want one?"  
"N-N-No! I'm… actually… really full, but thanks anyway!" I place my hand on my stomach and try to refuse graciously.

"…Okay," she wanders off into the kitchen.

"I haven't e-mailed my mom in a while."  
"You e-mail your mom?"Himeji comes back down and sits next to me.

"She hates talking on the phone, and she doesn't get technology so she can't text, instant message or use video chat, so yeah, I e-mail her. She lives in Osaka pretty much full time now, but every three weeks we visit, one time I go up there, the next time she comes down here. She wants to meet all of my friends next time," I laugh, "but I'm not sure if I'm going to have any left to show her."

To my surprise, Himeji clasps me in a tight hug.

"It'll be fine," she says.

"I don't deserve everyone being so forgiving."  
"If it helps, Yuji and Shouko aren't forgiving."  
"Like Yuji has anything to forgive! It takes two," I frown, "so it's not just my fault."  
"Right, let's take our mind off of this. What time is it? Four?"  
"Quarter to," I reply.

"Let's watch something on the TV."

"Or you could tutor me," I offer. _Never turn down the opportunity to raise those shoukanjuu scores, Karin. You never know when war could be declared._

"What subject?"  
"World History? I'm pretty sure I failed on the test."  
"I'll go get my notes."

_Man, Himeji is so cool._

* * *

"You guys are absolutely dead," Yuji says, when Himeji lets him into the apartment. "Not only did she poke my eyes out about three times, submit me to some kind of weird Edo period torture, punch me, scratch me _and _electrocute me, she then tried to kiss it better and I've got to watch some crappy historical drama on Tuesday night with her. Apparently there's something showing at the Suikazura."  
"I've heard of that! It sounds absolutely adorable – it has _romance _too," Himeji gushes just like she did when I gave her the books, and Yuji rolls his eyes.

"Yeah it sounds like a major chick flick, and therefore a snooze. Brilliant."  
"At least the FFF won't kick your ass now," I grin.

"You're evil to the core."  
"You know that's not true."  
"I do, but that won't stop me from saying it," he smiles, and I swear he winks. _Please don't like me. Please don't like me. _"You have to be nice, otherwise with a face like yours, what are your redeeming qualities?"

I choke on the glass of lemonade Himeji refilled. _Well, that's not a worry anymore.  
_"You're so lovely," I scowl.  
"As are you, Sato-chan. Well, I have to excuse myself now. I plan to spend my last night eating and reading a good magazine."  
"Magazine?"  
"Of the pornographic variety," Himeji informs me. "You are depraved. Out you go," she shows him the door.

"Boys are strange creatures, are they not? Well, Himeji, thank you for all your help today, but I'm afraid that I also have to be going – I promised that I would meet Minami at half five, and it's almost that time. Thank you again. I really appreciate it, and I promise that I'll never forget it. No favour goes unrewarded, I will give you my word."  
"It's no problem."  
"I promise. Now," I hug her, "I have to go. Minami will wonder what's happened to me if I turn up late to Coffee King."

"Off you go then. Good luck with everything."  
"Thank you."

* * *

When I step off of the subway and walk as quickly as I can to Coffee King, Minami is already leaning casually in the doorway.  
"How did your day go from when we last talked, then?" she asks me, as we take a seat and actually buy something for once.  
"I have to say that it actually went pretty well," I shrug.

"How's that then?"  
"Well, Yuji was bribed, no, _blackmailed _pretty much into helping us and he sweet-talked Shouko, even though she beat the crap into him. Now he has to take her to see that historical romance thing at the cinema on Tuesday. But he did admit that it was his entire fault, pretty much, so now Shouko is just pissed off with him, and not with me."

"So now the only people that are annoyed with you are Yuji (probably) and Kouta."  
"That's it."  
"Well, that's okay. Yuji is kind enough to let it go after a while, and like I said, Kouta is not a complex person. You're a girl, for God's sake – it's not easy for you to get on his good side. We just need to execute a finely-considered plan tomorrow at school."  
"And what is this plan?"  
"We'll make you irresistible. You need to take a leaf out of Kudou Aiko's book."  
"I don't _want _to take a leaf out of Kudou Aiko's book. Kudou Aiko's book is probably full of porn," I grimace. Minami laughs.

"I'm being serious. She drives guys wild!"  
"Yes, but I don't want to be like her. I want to be like me," I frown into the cup of green tea I'm holding and Minami just laughs again.  
"You don't have to be like her. You just have to take a leaf out of her book – tease him a little bit."  
"I don't want to. The key to teasing someone is that you have something that they want – and I don't. Therefore teasing is out of the question."  
"Are you being deliberately dim or were you just born like it?"

"Um, what?"  
"Kouta is the most perverted person I have ever met in my entire life – you have a female body and you're not 100 pounds overweight, therefore, you don't even have to work for it. Karin?"  
"Yes."  
"We're going to make you beautiful."

* * *

It was ten o'clock and I thought I was going to fall asleep. For almost a whole four hours, Minami had made me feel like a princess (in pain, of course). First there was the bath with the essential oils, the waxing, the exfoliating, the plucking and the scrubbing and scouring. Then there were the creams and potions and mixtures and ointments and lotions that had to put on every inch of skin, like it wouldn't survive without them. Of course, this was supposed to make me beautiful – I had never known that becoming 'beautiful' took so much work. When I was surfing the Internet, watching movies, going out with my friends and studying (okay a little bit of studying) during my free time, there were probably girls that did this all the time.

There was of course the nails too – the neatening and undercoating and filing and painting and strengthening and hardening and painting and then the top-coating and pencilling in. There was the hair – the brushing and combing and spraying and teasing and tying and oh God I was so sick of it, but I knew that Minami was working hard and I knew that the plan could possibly work. I knew it was necessary.

"'Pretty' girls spend so much time in front of the mirror," I moan to Minami as we're lying on the sofa watching TV. I'm picking from a packet of Pocky, but Minami refused on the grounds that it will be summer in a few months and she is desperately trying to lose weight – which, of course, is pointless, because she's one of the skinniest people I'd ever seen.

"I know. I feel sorry for them," she laughs.  
"Eat," I shake the box in her face.  
"No. I already said that I'm on a diet, didn't I?"  
"If you put on just a little bit of weight, your boobs will grow. That's how it works, Minami," I say truthfully, offering her the box. She eats the fifteen or so remaining sticks before I can say another word, and I put the empty box down on the table.

"Jesus," I grin. "You're desperate."  
"Pocky will give me the gifts that nature didn't," she waves the empty box in my face.

"Yup, and eating lots of good rice and vegetables will give me the legs that nature didn't. You look fine, you don't need to worry," I stretch. "Anyway, I'm so tired. Can we go to sleep now?"  
"We better," Minami nods by way of response. "I'm getting you up at six to get you ready."  
"Oh my God, Minami."  
"What?"  
"You will be the death of me."

"If love isn't first."


	12. Class F Strategy and Another Nakamura

"Good morning," Hideyoshi waves to me and Minami as we enter the classroom. This morning, the vermin of choice is a small rat that I see scuttle past Akihisa's feet as he's play-fighting with Yuji. The sun is streaming in through the windows, and it illuminates… how awful Class F is. As if to just prove my point, when Akihisa takes another step, one of the legs of the low tables breaks and splinters.

"The test results are here!"  
"Now, finally, we can declare war on someone?!" I say excitedly, and grab the envelope.

"I got a big fat 399," Akihisa moans. "My sister's going to skin me. What am I going to do?"  
"Shouko got 5123," Yuji states. "You got… 1/13 of her score," he laughs.

"Yuji won't tell us what his score is. I reckon he failed twice as bad as me, and he's just not telling us so that he can make fun of me," Akihisa groans. _I doubt it. _

"I got 811," Hideyoshi hands me and Minami an envelope each.

"That's not too bad," I comfort him.  
"It is, but there aren't tests in drama, art or music, so I'm going to take it with a pinch of salt. However, even Kouta got higher than me."  
"Kouta's here?" I ask, aware that I suddenly sound a little bit rabid.

"Yeah, but… he's disappeared?"  
"He's gone to sell pictures to Akihisa. But he got over 1000, even though his Health and Phys. Ed. score made up a good 700 of it, at least."  
"That makes sense. How about Himeji?"  
"Class A scores as always, right, Himeji?"  
"You make me blush," she replies modestly. "But yes."

"Well, I got a 1160," Minami says. "I improved by a couple hundred points, actually, but I'm still in the single digits in Traditional Japanese."  
"It's okay, I got a 7 in Social Studies. And I only got 11 in Math," I shrug my shoulders.

"After all that tutoring," Himeji and Minami almost faint.

"But overall, I got 1852. Not bad."

"You should be like… the Class E rep."  
"No. Class E sucks. I don't care if I have to get 0 on the placement test at the end of this year. I'm not going anywhere," I laugh. "But it's not that bad of a score."  
"Third in the class," Hideyoshi remarks.

"Second, after Himeji," Akihisa points out, and I realise that him and Kouta have been sitting to my right the entire time.

"And Yuji," Hideyoshi adds.

"Yuji failed, okay, we all know it."  
"You keep telling yourself that, Akihisa," Hideyoshi sighs. "Now, it's time to do something about these awful tables," he kicks one, and it splinters into six pieces.

"Thank you for that, Hideyoshi," Minami says, grabbing the glue.

"What are we going to do?" I ask, and turn to Yuji for advice. It's the first time we've made eye contact since Saturday, and it's a little bit awkward, but I turn around to hand Minami some duct tape and it's broken.

"We're going to declare war. Of course. How we do it, is going to be the main factor."  
"I say we _storm _into Class E, and we say 'We want to have a war!' and then swords will go _ting _and we'll be like _bam _and they'll be like _'ahhhhh'_ and we'll be like '_ha!_'"  
"Akihisa… have you learned nothing from my hopeless attempts to try and teach you strategy?" Yuji kneads his forehead in stress. "Of course we're not going to do that – they'd kill us."  
"But we have Himeji!"  
"Not anymore we don't," Yuji motions to Himeji, who is unconscious on the floor.

It takes a couple of moments of the information to sink in.

"Somebody help her!" Minami rushes to her side.

"What the hell happened?" I rush to her side.

"Nothing that serious. She just tried her own cooking, and it had the same undesired effect as it does every time," he rolls his eyes.

"Maybe now she'll stop cooking," mutters Kouta.

Himeji twitches a little and her legs are splayed slightly.

"Almost… almost," Kouta nudges Minami out of the way, who pushes back much harder, and positions himself in the best perverted way, camera at hand.

"And Muttsulini is back," Minami raises her eyebrows.

"Brilliant. Just another thing to add to the list."

She wakes up, blinks and then looks around the classroom like she's on a foreign planet. Mizuki then proceeds to sneeze, cough, retch and splutter continuously, over and over again.

"I forgot!" Akihisa exclaims.  
"What?" Minami and I chorus.

"She's so sickly! We're strong enough to not react that badly once we wake up – we can fight through the gates of hell! But Himeji has a frail and sickly body! You better take her to the nurse's office!" he says, and then flexes his muscles. "I will do it."

"Don't worry, Akihisa, that's…" Hideyoshi starts.

"…not necessary," Minami finishes his sentence, but by the time they're done talking, Akihisa has scooped up Himeji and run off with her in the general direction of the nurse's office.

"This is not going to stop us!" Yuji says. "So close after the exams, no-one will be expecting Class F to declare war! We have to strike while the iron is hot, with or without Himeji!"

"We're bound to lose," I mumble under my breath.

"Akihisa!" Yuji yells at the brown-haired boy once he returns, without Himeji this time.

"What?" he is out of breath, and puts his hands on his knees as he pants.

"Once you have got your breath back, you are going to be the Chosen One."  
"The Chosen One?"  
"The unlucky idiot that has to declare war on Class E. I really would make sure that you have your strength back before you go. You're going to need it."  
"…I… I… I don't know. Give me some time to regain my breath, will you?"

"You have three minutes."

Meanwhile, the four of us that are left are chalking up the strategy that Yuji gave us.  
"Who would have thought that Kouta would have been our secret weapon, without Himeji around?" Minami looks at him disbelievingly, but then looks back around to the diagram that Hideyoshi is drawing on the blackboard.

"It is hard to believe that out of all of us left, he's the one with the highest score."

"Right! Let's divide our forces!"  
"I thought dividing forces was something you are supposed to avoid," I say nervously.  
"Not in this case," Hideyoshi grins. "Minami and I will analyse Class E's forces. Kouta and _you _will go find Mr Oshima and capture him in preparation for him creating the summoning field. Is that clear?"

I shoot a look at Kouta.  
"No! No, that's not clear! Why? Why do we have to do it… together? Why do we have to do it together?" I blurt at Hideyoshi, frustrated.

"Go do it, Karin," he replies sternly, and gives me a wink. _Well, thank you, Hideyoshi. _I feel sick to my actual stomach at the thought of this.

"Stop making so much noise. Come on," Kouta says.

Brilliant.

"Good luck, you two!" Minami laughs as she waves us out.  
"Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events?" I clasp my hands together and grin in a friendly way at the rather short boy standing next to me.  
"That's one word for it."

"You're still annoyed with me; you know everyone else has forgiven me, and Yuji."  
"Annoyed is not the word, and I have forgiven both of you. It's not a grievous injustice, is it?" he shrugs his shoulders at me and clutches his camera with white knuckles.

"If annoyed isn't the word, then what is the word?" I wonder out loud. _Frustrated, furious, enraged, irritated, displeased…_

"Disenchanted," he says quietly. "I'm disenchanted."

I resist the urge to say, _that's an awfully long word for someone who probably scraped 20 in their Modern Japanese test._

"Well, I suppose we better get going. We don't want to lose the chance to go and get Mr Oshima," I shake off his comment and start striding down the hall.

"We're not going to go and get Mr Oshima. Mr Oshima hates me. He's never going to want to co-operate, no matter what we do."

"Well then what are we going to do?"  
"We'll get Ms. Nakamura to help us instead."  
"You're kidding. You're kidding. We are not getting Ms. Nakamura – we're not _going anywhere freaking near _Ms. Nakamura. That woman creeps me the hell out."  
"That's a bit stereotypical, isn't it?"

"You don't understand. You do _not _understand. She stands there whilst you're getting changed, and she stares at you, and she offers to _help _you and once she said 'girls, let's get physical' and I was like 'oh my God'."  
"She offers to _help _you get changed?" Kouta looks me up and down, and then falls back as blood spurts from his nose. "Oh _my _God."

"And now you want me to do what exactly, to get her to help us in this summoning battle?" I cross my arms and refuse to help him back up as he wipes the blood from his nose.

"Use your obviously sophisticated and eloquent arguments to convince her. Everyone likes an underdog, right?"  
"Everyone likes an overly perverted lesbian," I say sarcastically, whilst glaring at him.

"I happen to _love _an overly perverted lesbian," he muses.

"Because you're an overly perverted straight teenage boy."  
"You got it. Now let's go," he says, opening the door to the Phys. Ed. office. "Ladies first."  
"You just say that because you want to look at their ass."  
"I have no regrets," he shrugs matter-of-factly. "Ladies first."  
"Fine," I go through the door and he follows me.

"Excuse me, Ms. Nakamura?"  
"Karin? There's no reason for you to be visiting me when it's not your Physical Education lesson, you know that, right?"  
"I-I know, Ms. Nakamura."  
"Then why are you here?"

"I came to request your help."  
"Not straight away, dumbass," Kouta sighs quietly from behind me and I can feel his gaze burning into me.

"With what?" she rolls a pencil between her thumb and index finger thoughtfully.

"I… NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT," I blurt out… less thoughtfully.

"_That's believable. _What are you, 110 pounds, including muscle? You're a complete _idiot,_" he sighs again. "We're doomed."  
"Let's weigh you," she points towards the height and weight measuring station in the corner of the room. "Step on here."

"O-Okay," I kick off my slippers and step on the scales in just my socks.

"You weigh… 114 pounds," she says. "You don't need to lose weight."  
"Oh, but Ms. Nakamura, I feel so fat," I carry on my story, not quite sure how I'm going to end it.  
"Your body is _perfectly fine_," she says breathily. With this, I glare again at Kouta. _I hate you, Tsuchiya, for putting me through this. _

"You should get some exercise if you're feeling that bad," Kouta nods towards me, his first real input to this.

"Ah, but what exercise could I do at school? I already run track."  
"How about a Summoning War?" Kouta suggests.  
"That sounds like a good idea. Are you guys in a Summoning War?"  
"We're about to be."  
"You're stupid."  
"Is that your way of acknowledging that we're in Class F?" I ask her, confused.

"No. If you think that I'm stupid enough to not work out that you're trying to get me to set up a Summoning Field for your War, then _you _are the stupid ones. But the good news is that I will help you. At a price – from _both _of you."

"How much time have we got?" I ask him, as we march the other way back down the corridor.  
"We've got about half an hour until she said she would meet us. Are you ready?"  
"I don't know. I think I feel a little bit physically sick now."  
"A little of bit of running would help that, you know."  
"That's not even funny," I say, but in spite of myself I laugh. Kouta looks at me, and then back down at the floor, and then at his camera.

"You know I haven't even seen your shoukanjuu," he says.

"Neither have I," I admit. "I didn't go to any of the training sessions, because they were before the transfer students joined."  
"Then how will you know what to do?"  
"Ah, I'll pick it up," I wink. "I have a habit of doing that."  
"What, picking things up? Off the street, or?"  
"Oh, you're such a joker," I poke my tongue out. "I try to learn things as fast as possible."  
"Some would say it's because you're hardworking."  
"And you would say?" I continue his sentence.  
"You're lazy."  
"Extremely," I grin.

"Well, you better get prepared, because it looks like war is about to break out," he gestures towards the window of our classroom and if you look through it you can see Yuji dictating to the other three students.

"This is important. If we lose this we won't be able to fight again for another three months!" he yells at them passionately. I'm kind of distracted by how much he's concentrating on this, so much so that I actually want to laugh.

"Yuji, you look like an idiot," I roll my eyes, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Hideyoshi, Minami and Akihisa. He rolls his eyes back, and continues with his lecture, pausing for a moment midway through his sentence.  
"Did you get Mr Oshima to help us?"  
"No…"  
"What?"  
"We got Ms. Nakamura," says Kouta. I shudder.

"Ms. Nakamura?" Minami and Himeji gasp at the same time.  
"I _told _you!" I turn around to Kouta victoriously. "I told you the woman was a creep, but you didn't believe me! No she isn't, you said…"  
"No I didn't…"  
"Ms. Nakamura is _scary_," Himeji says.

"But she's helping us?" asks Minami.

"Yeah," I nod. "She's gonna meet us in," I check my watch, "twenty-five minutes or so, and we have to be ready."

"Have you guys all got a hold on the plan?" Yuji asks us.

"No, not at all."  
"Nope," Kouta follows me.

"You guys are useless! Weren't you listening?"  
"We weren't _here,_" I say.

"Right," Yuji sighs in return. Here's what is going to happen."

"Class E's forces are here, here and here," Minami points to a diagram on the board. They have arranged them in order for the strength, in around three waves of students. Hideyoshi, Akihisa and I all have relatively low scores, and so we will try and eliminate the first wave. Half of the FFF will try and help us too, but mostly they're fairly useless. The thing is – although Health is our best subject pretty much, Class E is _full of athletes._"

"So we're screwed," I reply.  
"Not necessarily!" Minami says triumphantly.  
"You're just regurgitating Yuji's words now," I raise an eyebrow.

"You're usually not this pessimistic. What's eating you?"  
"Jaws. Carry on, will you?"  
"Anyway, Akihisa, although his score is low, is very quick and hopefully he will still have a little bit of fight left. You, him and half of the FFF will then eliminate the next wave of students. Akihisa and the FFF should be dead by now, but then we will get you and Kouta to the third wave of students, where the Class Representative will be. Knock 'em out."

"I'll be dead by then," I shrug. "My health score isn't high enough to be okay by the third wave."  
"Remember they're still only Class E. There were written questions on anatomy, body composition, training methods and nutrition in this year's placement and supplementary tests. You will be worn out, yes, but not gone. Hopefully Himeji will have recovered from her little bout of illness by then and will be able to help you. You have to keep Kouta's score intact so that he will be able to defeat the Class E rep."

"She was mean," Akihisa groans.  
"Well, what do you expect when you go and declare war on them straight after exams?"  
"Right, everybody," Yuji says, sitting back. "Are you ready?"  
"Why are you not involved in this plan at all?"

"Well, I have to conserve my energy. If God forbid, Class E made it here, you don't want a weak representative do you? And with so many Class E students, if I went out there, they could all attack together and defeat me. Then we lose."

"Some would say it's because you're logical."  
"And you would say?" Yuji looks at me.

"You're lazy," a smirk appears on my face involuntarily, just at the thought of Kouta's words a little while earlier. It's comforting to see the smile playing on his lips as he sits to the right of me.


	13. Class Clashes and Partners in Crime

"Akihisa! Back me up, now!" I scream at him and his little shoukanjuu as three determined Class E students spring at me in attack. He hops around the back, taking one of them up as he dodges their blows, and I jump out of the way of one girl's dagger so she slashes her partner in crime. As she kills him off (accidentally), I jump around the back, and Akihisa and I manage to take her out together.

My shoukanjuu is a very energetic little thing, always bouncing all over the place and very hard to control. It's fast, just like me, but it doesn't really have much hand-eye co-ordination. It likes to make sneaky little moves to try and get its opponents to turn on each other instead of killing them itself. Finally, it had no transformation sequence – which was disappointing when I saw Hideyoshi's.

"How many are there left?" I ask him.  
"There are three in the second wave left, but they haven't really noticed us yet. Then there are the third wave. They're the top students, so I think there are about 10 of them. But, Karin, I can't fight much longer, my score is down to 11."  
"Yeah, and mine's down to 336. Suck it up. You didn't have many points to begin with. You'll fight 'til you have to go see Ironman."

"Jesus, you're a freaking warhorse."  
"That's a mean thing to say to such a holy man. I was more inclined to believe that he was a kind bearded man in sandals."

"You're a complete idiot," he grins. "Come on then, let's go!"  
"What's that thing that the FFF do?"  
"Self-destruct," he says. "Why?" I look at him questioningly, grinning, and he sighs.  
"Look, you're going to die anyway. You might as well kamikaze them and then get rid of a couple instead of just wasting your time and energy trying to hack away at them. Pleeeeease," I beg. "It would make things so much easier if you did."  
"Fine," he relents. "But I get to shout 'yippee-kai-yay, mother-'"

"Okay I get it. Shout what you want. Just run! Now!"

He and his avatar sprint towards the chatting, non-chalant final soldiers of the second wave and self-destructs, shouting various expletives as he does so. Two of them are killed and one is injured. I'm happy – now this makes it just like shooting fish in a barrel. It's been way too easy up to this point, but I'm definitely not complaining, as I run up to the two remaining boys, one of which is bashed up bad.

The injured redhead one tries to hit me but I aim for the other's feet, and as he jumps out of my way, the redhead hits the brunette in a place a guy should really never hit another guy. As he lands on the floor, he lands on my fist, and the avatar blinks away. The injured one now is just confused as hell, and it's easy to whack him on the head. After one sacrifice (after losing Minami and Hideyoshi in the first wave) the second wave is eliminated.

_Only one wave to go, and there's only ten of them, _I think to myself. _They're in the classroom, and they're probably all ready to fight. I can't see_ _any of them, and they're all really strong, so I have to be incredibly careful and worry not to put a foot wrong. As well, I can't see Kouta, and if I go in without his back-up, I'm probably completely doomed. _

I wait for about ten minutes, but I start becoming restless and I can see Ms. Nakamura giving me a look. I can't exactly figure out whether it's her typical 'Ms. Nakamura wants to help you get changed' look or whether it's a 'hurry up, I don't have time for you to be waiting around' look. Either way, the answer is always to get out of there as fast as you can, and so I go with my instincts and start walking towards Class E.

I walk up to the door, usher my avatar behind me and poke my head around the door. I can see them, nine in total including the representative. She's scanning around her impatiently, and I consider turning back until I see Ms. Nakamura still looking at me from the other end of the corridor. _How the hell am I going to deal with all of those?_

Before I can even say anything or plan my next move, three of the nine are silently assassinated and the ninja runs out of the classroom and grabs my hand.  
"Um, what?"  
"Come on, quickly!" Kouta yells, pulling me along the corridor and we run until we find the stairs to the floor above. We go in the closet underneath them, and squish in, in the dark, surrounded by mops and cleaning products.

I breathe out, finally, and I can hear the remaining six running up and down the corridor trying to find this.

"They won't find us, will they?" he says, and I know that he's frowning. I resist to urge to roll my eyes, even though he can't see whether I am or not, and reply.

"Of course not. Why would we hide in a janitor's closet? That would be incredibly claustrophobic and tense."

"Tense?" he asks.

"Tense," I nod in reply. _Tense? You're asking me whether its tense? _I try not to laugh. There's so much tension in this little cupboard that it feels like the whole place is electric. It's tense, but not particularly uncomfortable, and I'm becoming addicted to the feeling of holding myself back from kissing him.

"Why so?"  
"Hm," I avoid the question by giving absolutely no reply. As Kouta stretches, he knocks a box off the top shelf, and it causes a small avalanche, pushing him forward until he's literally a centimetre away and I can feel the heat from his skin.

"Now this would be tense," I can hear him let out a low laugh.

"Tell me about it," I chuckle falsely.

"Why did you make out with Yuji? Seriously?" he blurts out suddenly, and I don't know if it's the tense situation, the dark so I can't see his face or some other factor that's suddenly made him so talkative.

"I didn't mean to. I was really… really, really drunk."

"I know you were."  
"Sorry about your shoes by the way," I apologise.  
"It's fine."  
"And your T-shirt, and the night in general, and being a bitch, and yeah," I carry on blurting. It's my turn to learn that in the dark you say things you wouldn't just blurt out in the daylight.

"What are you doing on Saturday?"  
"…I'm with Ms. Nakamura," I grimace. "We both are, remember?"

"Oh yeah… are the rest coming?"  
"I don't know. I didn't get a chance to tell them…"  
"Come back to my house afterwards. Meet my mother."

"Um… what?"  
"Come back to my house afterwards. Meet my mother," he repeats as if it's no big deal. "She can be a good cook."  
"…My mother comes down on that Thursday, and she doesn't leave until Sunday. She'll probably want to do something."

"Invite her over."  
"Um… what?" I repeat. "My mother's a crazy lady," I laugh to myself, slightly embarrassed that I don't particularly want to be seen with my mother often in public. Over e-mail, she's fine, just like a regular person, but in person she's like a whole different woman.

"Well, they'll get along. You should meet her."  
"As what?" I say before I can stop myself.  
"As a friend."

"Okay," I say, even though it's so _un-okay _I barely have words for it. "I'll see if my mother doesn't mind going round. Your mother is a good cook, you said?"  
"Yes."  
"Then she probably won't mind. Anyway – we've been waiting here for ages, is there any chance we might be getting out any time soon?" I ask him, and I'm suddenly aware that he's just as close as he ever was.

"Yeah, in a min… Wait, what is this?" he says, turning around and finding a stack of tiny weapons. "These are extra weapons for their shoukanjuu. They must be from the training week."  
"The training week?"  
"Yeah, we had like a tournament. Yuji flunked it because he was lazy, but Class E ended up winning against Class D. Class A and B thought they were too cool, but not when Class E got these weapons that add to your shoukanjuu attack power."

"And now they're desperate…" I start to piece together the picture as Kouta starts to try and stack the boxes back up on the shelves.  
"So we don't have to go out and find them…"  
"Because they will come to us."  
"Are they only allowed to be used by Class E?" he asks, as I try to examine them in the crack of light that is coming through the door. He's now putting the last box back on the shelf.

"We're not going to use them. I want to prove that we can beat them generally, without any help – otherwise they'll just say that the only reason we were able to break them was because of the extra weapons."  
"You make a good point."  
"All my points are good."  
"You are joking?"  
"Yes!" I laugh. "Hey, wait, which of my points are bad?"  
"As much as we'd love to stand here and listen to you lovers argue playfully, we actually have a war on right now. So if you would kindly like to step out and here and fight us properly, then that would be much appreciated," I can hear the cocky voice of Class E's class representative as she stands in front of the now open door with one hand on her hip. "Ooh, have we interrupted something?"

"Nothing," I say. "Fighting properly? That's a little bit ironic coming from the class who actually only came here to get their extra weapons," I hold them up in front of their faces. "Why was that, huh? Do you not even have enough confidence in yourselves that you think you'll be able to beat the class below you without extra help? Are you that scared of us that you need more weapons than everyone else?"

"You cocky little Class F…"  
"Idiot? I think you're the idiots, for hiding your boosters in the janitor's closet," I laugh again and then look at Kouta. I can tell that he's thinking the same thing that I am. "Well, if you want your weapons, then you just need to come and get them?" I place them on the back shelf, quickly manage to grab a metal engineers' ruler and then step out of the closet, followed by Tsuchiya.

"You're serious?" the class rep says disbelievingly.

"Go ahead. We're not scared, are we?" I wink at Kouta.

"Not at all," he shrugs. The Class E fighters, like a pack of wild wolves, all dive towards the tiny pile of weapons with their summoned beings and begin to argue about who gets what.  
"They have no teamwork," I shake my head as we brace ourselves against the wall facing the door.

"Are you ready?" he asks.

"As I'll ever be. 3… 2… 1," I yell the final number and we dash towards the door, which really, really hurts, and slam it shut, squishing 6 very uncomfortable people into one little closet that could fit 2 comfortably (before the avalanche) and probably 3 or 4 at a stretch. I know for a fact that some of them will have to sit on each other's shoulders as we lock the door.

"Hey, who gave you the right to touch that?" is the first outburst that comes from the cupboard. We look at each other and laugh.  
"I really hope they're talking about weapons."  
"I really hope they're not," he says, a little drip of blood coming from his nose.

"Get off of that, it's not a toy!" a different girl yelps.

I continue to laugh – it's just too hard not to.

"That's not what you said the first time we got it! You said I was really good with it!" a boy tries to defend himself and by this time I'm almost in tears.

"Yes, but we're letting him have it this time."  
"It was a group decision?" Kouta mutters.

"Stop it, I can't breathe," I laugh. He grins looking at me.

"As much as we'd love to stand here and listen to you lovers argue playfully," I repeat the rep's words, "or… not so playfully, we actually have a war on right now. Seeing as you can't get out of the cupboard, I'm sure that you won't mind us trying to end it as soon as possible," I say cockily as I stand in front of the door.

"You two? What are you, partners in crime?"  
"You got it," Kouta rolls his eyes at the stupid girl's stupid comment.  
"Who else did you think it would be, the Queen of Sheba? Like I said, I can't really be bothered to stand around here all day listening to you guys argue about who touched what and what's a toy, so I'm just going to end it now, okay?" I brandish the metal ruler I got earlier and laugh. "Or have you got a problem?"

"Of course they have a problem."  
"I know, I'm just winding them up. It's all the more amusing."  
"Of course we have a problem!" says one of the guys. "Let us out and then fight us like men!" he yells, and the ridiculousness of this comment is just…

"I would, but I'm lacking the requirements," I yell back. "Now are you ready to go to remedial classes?"

"You're still really smug and arrogant from some Class F losers who think they're cool just because they locked us into a cupboard. May I remind you, that we can't get you if we're stuck in here, but it works both ways," says one of the girls. I think it's the 'right to touch that' girl from a few moments earlier.

"You would think so," I shrug. "But I wouldn't be so sure."

"Newsflash," Kouta says. "That is how it works."  
"Will you stop that? I actually have a plan for once. I thought it over."  
"Really? You don't tend to think things over."  
"Ooh, control your PMS, big man, we have work to do."  
"What's your plan then?"

"Lift me up your back."  
"What?! You expect me to lift you on my back? What are you, crazy?"  
"I think that's fairly rational, considering we found out earlier that I weigh 114 pounds," I turn around and position myself as he gets a little lower. "It's not like I'm 100 pounds overweight or anything," I say, thinking back to Minami talking last night.

I hop onto his back and he lets out a sigh, but lifts me back up.  
"Hand me your phone or camera or something," I say, one arm around his neck, trying not to strangle him. I put the other arm around and lean my face next to him. "Wow, this really is awkward."  
"It wasn't until you said it was. Here's my phone."  
"Doesn't that always happen?" I take his phone and hold it in my left hand, the ruler in my right, but because I have to lean against his back to keep my balance, I can't really reach the top corner of the door.

"This isn't working," I say, going back down to my arms around his neck.

"It's working," he replies.  
"Hold your phone for a moment and let me hop up onto your shoulders, will you?"  
"My… shoulders?" he says, and the jet of blood that spurts from his nose is so strong that it hoses down the door and sends me flying back towards the wall.

"Be careful! Pull anymore moves like that and you're going to kill my little shoukanjuu!" I yell at him, whacking him on the head. "It mimics our movements, remember! And I'm wearing shorts, you pervert. Come on, get on your knees."  
"Bit demanding, aren't we?"  
"Shut up," I say, as he crouches down to the floor. I hook my legs around his neck now, and it feels like I'm strangling him with my legs now. "Give me your phone and hold on to my legs or this really isn't going to work."

He grips my ankles and pulls me down a little so that I have proper balance, and then hands me his phone.  
"I don't even know what this plan is," he sighs.  
"That's what makes it so much fun. You just have to sit back and watch."  
"This really isn't sitting back and watching," he groans.

"Sh," I say, and use the light of the phone to look through the crack at the door's hinges, right at the top. "Target located."

I can see all of them tangled up like a cupboard full of human pretzels, but that's not what I'm focusing on right now. I have bigger fish to fry. I locate what I'm trying to hit, jam the ruler in, and whack the box on the top shelf, so that it knocks all of the others down and causes an avalanche.

"I told you I had it all figured out," I bunny hop his head and land comfortably on the floor. "Now's the sitting back and watching."

I can hear the squeals as the boxes fall and they hit people, then people hit people, then people hit boxes, boxes hit people and people hit people again.

"It's crazy," Kouta smirks.  
"I know. They're like a box of frogs."  
"I've only got a tiny score left, you idiot, don't hit me!"  
"That wasn't me, that was a box!"  
"Oh, either way, I'm dead now, you gormless simpleton!" the girl yells.

"Me too!"  
"Me too!"  
"Me as well!"  
"Me again!"  
"So there's only me left?" moans the class representative. "Why are you guys so weak? I resent being put in a class with such a bunch of back-of-the-class idiots!"

"Shut up!"  
"Yeah, you should have done better on the test if you were going to complain!" hollers one girl, and we hear the simultaneous thump of all of the shoukanjuu hitting the rep's.

"Great, now I'm dead too!"  
"Serves you right!" two guys chorus.

"I declare Class F the winners!" shouts Ms. Nakamura. "I will see you two on Saturday," she smiles sort of strangely at Kouta and I.

"All who were killed in action will take remedial classes RIGHT NOW!" says Iron Man, storming down the corridor and ripping the door clean off of its hinges.

"High five!" I hold my hand up to Kouta.  
"High five!" he actually smiles properly, in a non-perverted way.

"That was a good battle."  
"Partners in crime."


	14. Golden Girls and A Longtime Rivalry

_I love updating in twos, haha. Enjoy, hopefully. My writing's not really up to par at the moment but I want to move the story along a bit, so I can get comedic again. The next couple of chapters are kind of serious, I'm warning haha, but I really want to add depth to Kouta's character. Like, what makes him how he is? Plus I like a little realism underneath the comedy and romance. :3 GCSE results next week *dies* Okay so I only did 3 full courses and some units this year, but I have my BTEC too and ah I'm scared, someone hold me._

_Okay, I'm ranting now. You guys can read, ahah. And thank you for the wonderful reviews. I promise to answer them all personally at some point ^^ Until them, have some dirty snapshots. Mwahahaha. ;D_

* * *

I arrive at 9am. I thought that the place would be quiet, to be honest, but it's actually buzzing. Kouta stands at my side, but he's too distracted by the fact that there are many, many girls in PE uniforms to actually really say something. He's very busy wiping the blood from his nose as he eyes up all the runners in their shorts, from about six different high schools.

"What's the programme for today?" he asks, not taking his eyes off them for a second.  
"It's you actually getting a grip, to start with," I look down at the printed programme.

"Sorry."  
"Mm. Anyway –four heats of 100m, 200m, 100m hurdles, 400m, 800m and 1500m (that could take a while depending on their speed), semi-finals and then finals of all those events."  
"What are you in?"  
"Well I'm a better sprinter than I am long distance so 100m, 200m and 100m hurdle," I say. "I do run long distance but it's not my best.

"And if you run in the races and I take pictures for the school newspaper, we'll be even with Ms. Nakamura?"  
"Well, that's what she said."  
"I hope I have enough battery to take all those pictures."  
"You only need to take pictures of our girls," I say.  
"Yeah, for the newspaper. What about my personal collection?"  
"That is possibly the creepiest thing I've ever heard you say. In fact, no, that is _definitely _the creepiest thing I've ever heard you say."

"You haven't heard me say a lot."  
"That's a lie, actually. You didn't say a lot when I first met you, but recently you've been talking in full sentences all of the time. Your morose and silent disguise has been lifted, Muttsulini, but the nickname will always stick."  
"But the point I made still stands."

"You're disgusting."  
"When does your mom arrive?"  
"She arrives at 1pm, in time for the finals, providing that I get through."  
"I thought you were going to Osaka this weekend anyway."  
"The film festival was cancelled. I found out randomly on Monday morning that she was coming down to see me instead."

"Why does she live in Osaka anyway?"  
"She lives with my aunts so that they can take care of her and make sure that she stays out of trouble," I explain simply. The look on his face says that he's now expecting someone who is unable to take care of themselves, and frankly my mother kind of fits the bill.

"Mm," he says in recognition. "When do the 100m heats start?"

"Mine's at 9:20, I'm in the second."  
"Good luck."  
"Mm," I repeat what he had said earlier. "I'll need it – look at some of the girls that are running."  
"Trust me, I have been," he smirks to himself in his typical perverted way, and snaps his camera again with a quick flash of light.

"I should go now. I'll see you at the finish line."  
"How many from each heat go through to the semi-finals?"  
"Two. It's gonna be a really long day. The races don't finish until half-five, you realise this, right?"  
"A whole day of taking pictures of running girls. Now get over to the start line – it's almost time for your heat."

"Kouta, one more thing?"  
"What?"  
"I was lucky to be invited to this since I only joined the school this year. This means a lot to me. It opens doors for running. Okay? You understand? Bye."

"Bye."

I go over to the start line, take my position, down on the ground, survey the people looking around me. I try to block everything out apart from the finish line, and the semi-final chance that comes with it. _Every race is your Olympics, Karin, so concentrate it and you can do it. You can do it._ Right, I'm psyched up – now I can definitely do it, all I need is the start gun and I'm off.

_Bang. _Off I go, I'm zooming down the track and everything else is a blur. Legs moving as fast as possible, arms pumping for extra speed – all I can hear is the cheering of people in the crowd (of course not for me) and the air whizzing past my ears. And when I lean at the right moment and come in first, it feels like I've completely earned it. Of course, that's only once the information sets in.

"You came first," Kouta said.

"I know. I'm in the semi-finals," I say. "Thirty-five minutes until my next heat. Come on, let's find somewhere to stand and watch the girls."  
"I have to stand at the front."  
"Then I guess I'm standing here too."

Half an hour goes fast. Kouta is preoccupied, snapping pictures of all the girls flying past the line, and I find myself getting restless and bored with no-one to talk to. I'm limbering up now, getting ready for the 200m and when I'm about to go to the start line, Kouta turns around.  
"Are you ready?" he says, holding his camera casually in one hand.  
"As ready as I'll ever be."  
"You say that a lot."

"Are you ready?" I ask him.  
"For what?"  
"Snapping a picture of whoever wins," I make a camera gesture with my hands and then run off to the start line, taking deep breaths and trying to calm myself.

_Bang. _Off I go again, double the distance, hearing nothing but screams for my opposition to win, trying to go as fast as my legs will take me. It's all going well, I could win this one again, I honestly could, but in the last 10 metres a sudden flash goes right in my eyes and stuns me. My body goes into shock, and the lead I had goes as I stumble towards the finish. Suzuki, some girl from Kazuhiro, is so close to me I can't even believe it.

"Aika! Aika!" my old running coach yells. "This is the championships for the whole city! That goes to regionals, and then to nationals! Do you really think that second place is acceptable?" she screams to Suzuki as she picks herself up. _Second place might be acceptable. Second place qualifies. Third place does not. I didn't qualify. I didn't even get to the semis in a city championship._

And then suddenly, when I'm trying to work out what the hell it was that made me stumble so badly I went from metres ahead to not even qualifying, I realise. I realise, and it makes me so angry and I want to find the culprit and punch them in the face.

"Didn't I tell you that this meant a lot to me? You have to be in the finals for at least five of the six city championships to qualify for the regionals. And what if I'm ill, what if I'm injured for one of the next five? Then I don't qualify 200m," I choke out.

"You care this much?"  
"Of course I care! OF COURSE I CARE! What do you think I want to do when I get older, huh? You think I don't have ambitions?"

"You're overreacting."  
"Hmph."  
I storm off to the throng of people. Alongside the track running, there's a little section where there are a few funfair games and a huge amount of stalls selling all variety of little snacks, cakes and drinks.

"Excuse me?" I say, still warm and sticky from my races.

"Yes, can I help you?" says a stall owner.

"Do you know where I can find some iced tea?"  
"Ichimura is selling it over there, 120 yen a bottle."  
"Thanks," I nod, and go and get a bottle. I couldn't even… think straight. I was so angry, and yet I didn't know why because it wasn't exactly his fault, and if I was that good of a runner anyway I wouldn't have been so stunned with the flash.

It's 10:30 and the gun goes for my 100m hurdles. This is my best event – and if I can come first in the 100m, I can come first in this.

"I'm sorry!"  
"What?" I yell, I don't know who's talking to me… but I can guess.

"I'm sorry!" shouts Kouta after me, but his voice is muffled by the bang of the start gun. I'm thrown by his apology but I stumble off the start blocks and try as hard as I can to catch up with the others.

"Karin Sato in 8th place right now."  
"Shut the hell up, Ms. Nakamura," I breathe out whilst leaping the second hurdle. Once there are only three hurdles left to go I hear him again.

"Karin, go!" I can hear his voice. "You can do it, come on, run!"

You know when you have that moment where you don't know whether to get thrown off track by someone's words, or whether they will just spur you on anymore? Well I had that, just for a moment, but then naturally my legs just started moving faster and faster until I was in the leading group and then I leant just like I had been taught to and I so thought I was in the qualifying group.

"It's a photo finish for the 100m hurdle heat!" Ms. Nakamura gasps over the tannoy. "Let me see that, let me see that!" she says, and there's buzz on the line as she fumbles for the photo. "Eh, what do you think?"  
"The one in red."  
"They're both in red."  
"The dark kind of red. Brunette."

_Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's me. I'm through. I'm through to the semi-finals. The semi-finals. Yes. _  
"You're through," Kouta remarks in his simple way.  
"I know, I know, I know!" I practically pounce on him and hold him so tight I don't think either of us can breathe.

"You can let go now," he says, choking.  
"But I'm so excited," I grin, as he peels my tangled limbs off of him.

"I know. I know you're excited."  
"I'm in the semi-finals of the city championship when I got an awful start," I squeal. "The semi-finals!" and jump on him again. "I'm so happy," I lock my legs around him and he falls over.

"Honey!" a female voice squeaks. _Oh God, not another familiar voice. _"Am I interrupting something?" she comes over, and I smell the flowers on her perfume. _Why does this always happen to me?_

"Um… no… Mom! Mom, no," I say, but I'm interrupted by the fact that Kouta's nose starts to bleed excessively.

"Yeah… that's what it looks like. I know you like to celebrate, love, but this is slightly inappropriate."

"I'm in the semi-finals!"  
"For all three events?"  
"No, just for two."  
"Why didn't you get all three?" she demands vehemently.  
"Because…" I start my sentence. Kouta looks at me questioningly. "Because I messed up in the 200m and I came third. It was such a mistake. You'll laugh."

"You know what would make me laugh? A drink. What has a girl got to do to get some sake around here?"  
"It's school grounds – I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to sell alcohol, Mom. However, Ichimura over there makes good iced tea..."  
"Stick some vodka in that and then you've got a _real drink._ I'll see you after lunch, honey. That businessman over there looks like he wants to buy me something to eat."

"Oh my God," I sigh. "Well, are you hungry?"  
"Not particularly. I'm thirsty though. Let's go get something to drink and then go sit in the shade."

"Your camera's hot?"  
"Yeah, it's like burning my hands right now."  
"I'll go get some tea and then we'll sit over under that tree," I motion to a large tree with droopy, thick branches and a big area of shade.

"Oh, here," he hands me a 100 yen coin. "That should cover it."  
"Um, yeah," I nod, but it takes me a moment to realise that he's talking about the tea. I pick up my own bag and go over, and get two bottles.  
"Thank you," nods the kindly, middle-aged woman I've found out is Ichimura.

"No problem. Keep the change," I grab them and go over to sit next to Kouta.

"Ah, the shade is beautiful. It's only when you get in the shade that you realise how  
warm it is without it," I say, handing him one. "You like yours sugared, right?"  
"Yeah, I have a sweet tooth," he takes a sip. "This is good."

"I'm so tired, I could fall asleep quite comfortably right here."  
"Why don't you?"  
"Because I have two semi-finals and if I get into the final my races don't end until five."

"You have plenty of time. Your mom came early, remember?"  
"Yeah, I remember… Wait, what?"  
"She came at like half-ten instead of one. You do realise that it's only about quarter to eleven, right?"  
"But if I sleep, won't I be sluggish?"  
"No, that's if you eat too much. You should re-coup your energy."

"I suppose," I place my hands behind my head, close my eyes and feel myself slip away.

"Doesn't she look cute?"  
"Mm."  
"Don't you think so?"  
"Mm."  
"Honey, wake up. Mom's here. It's half an hour until your next race."

"W-Wait, what?" I feel my eyes open to see my mom peering at me through her bloodshot eyes. "What time is it?"  
"It's half past one, dear. Your semi-final is in half an hour."  
"What? I slept for like… almost three hours?!"  
"That's right," Kouta says, and then I notice.

I'm laid… on Kouta's chest and he's sitting casually, handkerchief at his side, with one arm lazily propped around me. That wakes me up.

"You better get up, you don't want to miss it, do you?" my mom slurs.

"M-Mom… where did you go?"  
"Oh, this lovely man asked me out for a very nice lunch. I ate a lot."

"I was going to ask you if you were busy later."  
"Only to spend time with my daughter," she proclaims proudly, and then hiccups. "Why, did you have plans?"  
"Did you want to… I mean, did you… did you want to come round to Kouta's and meet his mom?"  
"First name basis," she sniffs. "Well… what, are we going to sit around and chat like ladies?"

"She chats like a lady in the morning, then she goes with the ladies who lunch until about two. Then she cracks open the wine and… makes a good meal."  
"Well, doesn't that sound lovely?" she says, making me grimace with her alcoholic breath as she hugs me tightly. "That would be wonderful."  
"Great," I say, and she walks off to take her place in the crowd. Or should I say _staggers_.

"Mm," Kouta picks himself up, dusts his shirt off and offers me a hand.  
"What's your angle?"  
"What?"  
"What's your angle? You've seen my mom. She's a mess. Why would you want her in your house?"  
"You'll see later. I want to show you something."

"Mm. I'm suspicious."  
"Don't be. Why don't you get down to the start line?"  
"No pictures this time, please," I beg him.  
"You sound like a famous diva. Just get down to the start line and do your best," he smirks, flicking through his photographs.

"I… I only just… qualified…" I say, out of breath.  
"You came fourth out of eight," he announces.  
"I know, I know. Where's my mom?"  
"She's half-cheering you on, half flirting with that man over… there," he points towards a fairly awkward but swish-looking guy in a suit.

"Brilliant."  
"You'll have to do better in the hurdles."  
"AIKA, YOU DIDN'T QUALIFY?" I can hear the screeching running teacher from 20 feet away.  
"Hahahaha… As long as I beat her, I could come second to last," I grin, and pause for a moment.  
"No, I'm joking, I need to come in the top four."

"That was easy. Easy peasy," I pant.  
"Yeah you sound like you were taking it real easy."  
"Oh I was," I breathe out, but my thin voice betrays me. "Like taking candy from a baby."  
"Then how come Aika came first and you came second?"  
"You just have to ruin my moment, don't you?"  
"Well…"  
"If you must know, I'm saving my energy for the finals."

"The finals are almost two hours away – they have loads of semi-finals to do yet for the other events, and then a break."  
"Ruining the moment, again, Kouta. Why?"  
"It's amusing."  
"I'm so hungry."  
"Go pick up something and then we'll eat at mine."

Has Kouta gone under some kind of surgery… a lobotomy or something? Since when was he so talkative and… normal? Hell, his nose had only bled about ten times today, and with all these girls around, that in itself was some kind of miracle.

I was restless for the whole period of time up until the first final. In fact, I was hopping all over the place. My mom was trying to calm me down, but she was too drunk out of her mind to even talk properly, let alone mother me. As she placed her hands shakily on my shoulders and I shrugged her off, Kouta just looked on with that same smirk on his face.

"Do you ever stop smiling like that?" I look at him.  
"I wasn't aware I was smiling," he raised his eyebrows.  
"Must be my presence," I grin jokingly, and run off to warm up again. My mom gives Kouta a look, but he's only looking at her chest. _Typical._

"And it's Suzuki Aika in first place with Karin Sato behind by not even a tenth of a second! It's a win for Kazuhiro High!" Ms. Nakamura announces, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.

"Second," I hiss. "Second?"  
"That's right, second," Aika just winks at me and then runs off to join her jubilant coach.

"I need a coach," I sigh. "I need a coach."  
"Second? You came second?" my mom has one hand on her hip, though I don't know whether it's to keep her balance or to back up her point.  
"Well, who needs a coach when you have a family like this?" I raise one eyebrow and put my hand on my hip. "I have shorter legs than Aika."  
"Excuses, excuse," Mom scoffs. _You got me._

"It wasn't even a tenth of a second. It was all in the lean," Kouta remarks, and I'm not quite sure whether he's taking my side or my mother's.  
"Exactly! No excuses, you just needed to work harder!" my mom struts off. I roll my eyes.

"Well, _sorry_."

"And now, and now, the score between the two girls has been made even, it looks like! Karin in the front by two tenths of a second, followed by Aika Suzuki!" Ms. Nakamura sounds proud, and cuts off the tannoy.

"Two tenths of a second, Mom. _Two tenths of a second,_" I look at her. She nods, and gives me a hug.

"Your father was always good at running," she sighs.  
"Why don't you go flirt with that businessman? He's giving you the eye," I try to get the subject turned as far away from my father as humanly possible and turn back around.

"You look blind in this photo, come look."

"What?"

It's a picture of me, at the front of the leading group in the 100m hurdles, with Aika in the lane next to me a metre and a half or so behind. But he's right, my expression is so embarrassing.  
"Can't you delete that?"  
"A photo of our running golden girl. Why never! Ms. Nakamura might want this for _her _personal collection."

I gag.

"Lovely. And golden girls don't come second."

Standing on the side of the podium next to your rival is humiliating, but standing at the top with her below you is possibly the best feeling in the world. Do you know what's better than that though? Holding on to your (fake) medal, looking out into the crowd, and seeing two faces looking back at you with smiles on their faces. One pair of eyes hopelessly bloodshot but full of love, and the other the brightest blue.


	15. Notes Left Behind and Alone Again

_Okay guys, right. This chapter is short, but it's very serious. Like, really. Okay I wanted to give Kouta a story, like I did. I **meant** to make this sad, okay, but I don't want anyone getting annoyed because it's not my usual hijinks. I promise (so many promises, aish xD) that I'll get back to normal after this chapter. After all, it's Golden Week after this! Woohoo._

* * *

I wake up, with incredible nausea, in a large bed with dark grey sheets that smells too good to get out of. _Where am I? What am I doing here? Why does my head hurt? …Where am I again? _

"Where am I?" I say out loud, not knowing if anyone is in the room to answer me.

"My house," a deep voice says.

"W-Why?"

"You came back after the track competition, remember? We all ate my mom's cooking," he grimaces, sitting on the bed next to me.  
"Kouta?"  
"Yeah."  
"Did I get drunk again?" I kick myself under the covers. "I didn't want to. I didn't mean to."

"No, no, you refused all the alcohol. My mom cooked bad chicken and you got a very bad case of food poisoning. Do you not remember anything?"  
"Not really."  
"You fainted. Three times. Vomited a lot, said you felt ill and woozy. After the third time you passed out we just put you to bed."

"How come no one else got it?"  
"I didn't eat the meat, I ate the noodles. I think our mothers got it mildly, but they're so ill after the amount they drunk I don't think that they'll notice."  
"Mm."  
"So you don't remember anything?"  
"Nope. I remember coming back here, and sitting at your low table, but that's pretty much it."

He sighs.  
"Okay."  
"Sorry for being a bother," I put a cold hand to my clammy skin.

"It's not a bother. My mom's the bother. I didn't _want _you to get ill," he smirks.  
"What's happened to you?" I blurt out.

"What?"  
"You're so talkative."  
"I talk more when I'm relaxed."  
"You're relaxed at having a girl, barely clothed, in your bed, feeling ill?"  
"Well, she's ill. That's no fun, is it? I prefer healthy girls in my bed, barely clothed. Just making that preference a bit clearer. You know, for birthdays, Christmases and the like."

"And you would know all about this," I joke.  
"Mm," he replies. _Rika. _

"Well, I'll get up now," I sit up, but then realise all that's covering me is the duvet. "Do you mind if I take a shower?"  
"It'd probably be sensible," he throws me a large white towel and indicates the bathroom.

In the shower, I can think more clearly. The water is warm and the jet is powerful, and it takes away all the clammy dampness from my face and hair. The overwhelming urge to vomit is still there, but it's not as strong as it was before. However, with the weakness in my legs and the turning in my tummy, I don't think I'm going to be well for a couple of days yet anyway. I grab the first shampoo without thinking what it is, and massage it into my hair.

_Salmonella, could it have been? Did bad chicken give me the poisoning? Who knows…_ I scrub my skin and wash my face and with a last jet of ice cold water to wake me up I switch off the shower and step into the comforting towel. Feeling better, I strut into the bedroom with a second towel and begin to dry my hair.  
"You don't mind me using this, do you?" I motion to Kouta, who's lying on the bed flicking through photos on his camera.

"Not at all," he clicks on the computer. "My mom dyes her hair various colours every six to eight weeks or so, so most of our towels are ruined. You don't dye your hair, do you?"  
"No. Too much effort. My mom does though."  
"Really? I thought she was a naturally blonde Japanese woman. I hear that's quite common nowadays," he keeps his eyes focused on the screen.

"No need for sarcasm! Hey, Mom!" I call to wherever she is. "Do you know where my mom is?"  
"Watching TV, hung over on the sofa," he motions towards the corridor. I pad down the stairs and find my mom under a blanket on one of the sofas, sipping tea and laughing with Kouta's. _Great, the two of them are friends. Just great. _

"Mom," I say to her awkwardly. "Can we talk in the corridor?"

I return triumphantly back to the bedroom and place the materials discreetly on the bed.

"This is too gross," I murmur to myself in a voice only dogs could hear.

"What is?" Kouta spins on his chair and asks me. _Kouta the Big Red Pervert, apparently. _

"Nothing. Now turn around, little boy, I'm getting changed," I shoo him away and lay out the clothes from my bag on the bed.

I kept a spare change of clothes in my bag to get changed into after the competition, but I never got a chance, so I still have clothes. I didn't have any change of underwear, however, because I didn't plan on staying over and my mother always keeps a fresh set in her handbag so I had to borrow hers. It was clean, but, I mean, come on.

I slipped on the lacy garments (the bra was a size too big but if I tightened the shoulder straps you couldn't tell) and sat down to put on a pair of socks. I slipped on the jeans, put on the T-shirt and combed through my hair, which was drying.

"Okay, you can turn around now," I flopped down on the bed. He turns around from his photo editing for a moment to acknowledge my existence, and then turns back around. I pick myself up and go to lean and look at what he's doing.

"These are the running photos, huh?"  
"Yup. Ms. Nakamura needs mainly you, Kawasaki from first year and Yamamoto from the seniors – you're the only ones that won anything."  
"Three out of ten isn't bad. I want to be first in _everything _by the end of the year."  
"That's a bit ambitious," he flicks through to my stunned shot at the 200m and then quickly moves on to the next.

"I can do it if I practice. I just really, really, want to beat Aika. At everything. Ever," I finish my sentence to see another one of her winning. Again, smartly, he flicks through that one so it barely has a split second to flash up on the screen.

"Rivals aren't good."  
"I disagree. It's good to have rivals."

"How so?"  
"There are two main things I want to be good at. Film making and running. Film-making is a hobby, and it's something that I enjoy a lot, but I barely have the money to make them anymore, or the human resources. Or any resources, for that matter. But to run, all you need is a pair of shoes – I can do it anytime, anywhere."

"So…"  
"Rivals inspire you to do better. Aika knows that. We used to race against each other in the playground when we were six – this is just the same, but it's on a bigger scale. Part of the rivalry is the fact that she always wants to beat me, and that just makes it sweeter when I beat her. But that applies both ways. I don't _like_ her. She's not a nice person. But I do respect her, and sport needs respect."

"I see your point, but…"  
"But?"  
"You should do something you love for yourself. Not just to beat someone else."  
"I do. It's just an added bonus if I beat Aika. You don't understand. We need to enter you in a photography contest."

"I don't think most photography contests accept my photos," he smirks.

"Porno Palace?"  
"I suppose," he shrugs. "I'll never understand you anyway. It's pointless trying."  
"That's a quitter thing to say."  
"I am a quitter."  
"Don't be a quitter."  
"Don't tell me what to be and what not to be. I'll be what I like. Not quitting takes so much effort."  
"Effort is something you're good at. You can run too, can't you? Obviously you can, because it's not theory questions in the Physical Education section. There you are, effort. Jesus, it must be boring giving up everything after a while."

"You don't have to care about what bores me and what doesn't."  
"Mm. You never told me why you invited me here anyway, did you?"  
"I did last night, but then you vomited, fainted and forgot," he smirks again, clicking a few buttons in rapid succession.

"Oh, well then you can tell me again, can't you?"

"Mm, you'll remember," he says, tapping all kinds of keys to improve brightness and exposure and sharpness.

"What if I don't?"  
"Then you'll carry on exactly as you did before," he shrugs again. "It wouldn't be a big deal to _you _anyway," he says in a quiet voice.

"You make a lot of assumptions."  
"So do you."  
"Touché. I like it here."  
"Why?"  
"It's quiet, and chilled."  
"That's because we're home alone. Our moms went out to shop a whole rant ago."

"Ah, it must be nice having such a big place to yourself."  
"You live by yourself. It's just the same."  
"Yeah, but I live in an apartment – this place is big," I motion with my hands as if that will emphasize how big the house is.

"Oh, last night is such a blur."  
"You don't remember anything?" he says.

"Should I remember anything?" I say, massaging my head. It just reminds me of when I woke up not remembering anything the weekend end before. _Have I missed something important? That tends to happen._

"It'll all come back to you by tonight. You're only not remembering because all you've done is passed out and slept."

At around five o'clock, after re-vomiting and re-showering, I'm unpacking my bag when I come across a note.

_[This isn't the real one, just a copy of the one we have downstairs.]_

_A copy of what? _It's neat, angular writing – Kouta's handwriting.

* * *

_Sweet Yuuki, _

_It's been a long time we have been together. For almost 15 years, I have forgiven your shortcomings and loved you like no other man on the planet possibly ever could. To me you are the perfect woman, and indeed in appearance and in heart you are the most perfect woman anyone could ever dream for._

_ It doesn't take long to fall in love with you, Yuuki, but it will take a long time to get over you. You are charismatic, intelligent, giving, beautiful… my list could go on but I would be here forever and a day. You gave me my equally lovely, if somewhat morose, son, and for that I will be always in your debt, because the two of you have changed me and changed my life in ways that before I met you I could not even comprehend._

_ Why am I writing you this letter? My love, I have had to leave. It pains me deeply, it pains my heart – I cannot stay here and watch you throw all that you've worked so hard for down the drain because of alcohol. It has been the fifth time I have discovered you are having an affair – every time I confront you, you show no remorse. I refuse to stick around and be something holding you back from what you obviously really want… which isn't me._

_ I will always love you, I just believe that it's time for me to find someone who loves me too, and will give me respect in a loving relationship. And so I have left. I believe that when he is old enough, Kouta will understand my reasoning and I have left all my contact details on this letter. I will notify you when they change and if he should ever need to come in contact with me then that is his choice and I will support him. I hope one day that we could meet again._

_ I know you must think I'm an awful person for abandoning you and our 11 year old son. Take care of him, Yuuki, I mean it. Get off the alcohol – and remember this sentence._

**_Alcohol has torn our family apart._**

_Love, Daisuke_

* * *

The last sentence was underlined and highlighted. _Alcohol has torn our family apart. _11 years old and his father had run off to leave him with his alcoholic mother. It was just a messed up version of my family story – apart from in mine, my dad went when I was five and my mom became an alcoholic _afterwards._

"We're more alike than I ever would have thought," I mumble to myself.

"You talking to yourself?" my mum says, louder than she needs to, as she comes into my room. "What's this?"  
"No, no," I take it back out of her hands.

"I'm going on the train now."  
"Will they let you on?"  
"I'll make them," she slurs, laughing. "It's been lovely to see you, honey. I'll e-mail you."

_Good. I prefer you virtually. _

"Do you need me to come with you to the station?" I ask.  
"No, I have a ride, and a couple of errands to run," she excuses herself and walks to the door. I hug her tight as she leaves.  
"Keep healthy," I say, my voice muffled by her hair. "Don't drink too much."  
"Occupational hazard," she hiccups, and staggers down the corridor. I help her into the elevator and then wave goodbye to her as the doors close.

"Sometimes I love you. Sometimes I can't wait for you to leave," I mutter guiltily. When I get back in the apartment, everything is untidy, strewn about and smells of floral perfume. _How can one little person make so much mess in just a few days? _I sigh to myself and start to get my apartment back to normal.

* * *

17:46PM: Kouta?

_17:48PM: Yes?_

17:48PM: I remember. I found the note in my bag

_17:49PM: Mm_

**He texts like he speaks. Are you kidding?**

17:50PM: Sorry for drinking, I guess.

_17:53PM: You guess?_

17:54PM: Sorry for drinking way too much.

_17:57PM: Eh, it's not my place to tell you what to do_

Can I not lighten the mood a little bit?

17:58PM: Oh, and sorry for falling asleep on you and hugging you to death ;D

_18:00PM: …That bit wasn't as bad… _

Ah, the Kouta we know and love. Wait, what?


	16. A Bit of Betting and a Nature Trail

_Hey, I'm back from my hiatus! So let's get back into the story, shall we? Sorry I've been gone so long! c;_

* * *

"It's Greenery Day tomorrow," Akihisa says matter-of-factly. He, Minami, Mizuki, Kouta, Yuji, Shouko, Hideyoshi and I are sat at the créperie. "Is anything going on?"  
"Greenery Day is one of my favourite days of the year," I muse. "I love holidays."  
"You were always festive, even as a kid," Akihisa says.  
"Yuji and I are going to the celebration that's being held in Tamaka Central Park," Shouko says, holding on to her uncomfortable 'lover'. "He still owes me."  
"There's a firework festival, with yukata," Himeji clasps her hands excitedly.  
"Y-Y-Yukata?" Kouta wipes his nose in a pre-emptive gesture as his eyes grow dreamy and his nose begins to bleed.  
"Yeah. Looks like it's going to be good. I love Golden Week," Himeji says.  
"Me too!" I agree.  
"We should all go," Yuji says, looking at us with fear in his eyes.  
"It does sound good. Where should we meet?"

* * *

At eleven a.m. eight young men and women of 16 years old leave their houses and apartments, all in different parts of the city on different streets, and make their way to Tamaka Central Park, right in the middle of the southern city of Fumizuki. It is Greenery Day, and not only are there the typical Greenery Day celebrations, there is also a large firework festival, just because it is Golden Week and that's an excuse to have one.

The boys, first. One tall, broad-shouldered boy with spiky red hair dresses himself in a matching dark red yukata with no pattern at all and asks his mother to help him tie the slightly darker obi, being useless with such fashionable things himself. He grabs some money, grabs a small trinket that his mother has given him to give as a gift and says goodbye, before closing the door behind him and walking along on his way.

Next, a shorter boy with light brown hair eats a cup of instant ramen in his roughly-tied black yukata, one with a white geometric pattern. His sister comes in, scolds him for causing her to think impure thoughts of him so barely dressed and throws a dark blue obi at him, which he ties hastily. As she comes over and offers to undress him rather than dress him, he shuffles out the door as quickly as he can, barely grabbing everything that he needs before rushing down the street away from incest advances.

A fairly effeminate boy fixes his pale green, soft and shimmery summer yukata, and fixes silver butterflies in his hair (just right for the season) to match his outfit's silver pattern. He dusts stray hairs away from his pearly skin. He then gets his sister to reluctantly tie his white obi belt and then slips on his shoes before picking up his neatly packed bag and hopping delicately into the elevator that will take him to the park to meet his friends.

The last male at the meeting, a boy with a lean, slightly muscular body fixes up his own summer kimono, a little bit nervous about the day's events. His dark blue yukata is tied with a black obi and sports a simple pattern; he tucks just a little bit of money and his camera into a traditional bag and holds it close to him. Checking over his mother, making sure she's alright and leaving, he walks away from the modest two-storey home to go to Tamaka.

The girls… now let's explain the girls. One girl with long, wavy pink hair sprays a fine mist of hairspray over her updo, leaving her tousled fringe down, and smoothes down her pink yukata (with a sakura pattern of course). Her parents tie her dark pink obi and grin at her as she dabs a little gloss on to her lips, and packs her phone and other things in a silk bag. She shuns a little brunch and instead slips on her sandals before stepping out of the rather large home that her family owns and walking down the tree-lined street.

A second girl fixes her hair into a traditional chignon and fixes in pretty bira bira hair decorations before looking in the mirror and deciding that she looks okay. She awkwardly ties a white obi over her pale blue yukata herself, and looks in the mirror admiring the white tree branch pattern on the material. A small, equally traditional matching bag is just okay for the things that she needs to carry as she puts on her sandals, grabs a little snack to eat and heads out of the door, not wanting to be late.

A willowy, delicate girl with pale skin asks her mother to help her fix the elaborate hairstyle she has planned out for the day, having already dressed herself in a simple but elegant navy blue yukata with a scarlet red obi. She adds just a little bit of make-up to her look and grins girlishly (with a somewhat sinister undertone) at how she looks, wondering if a certain boy will notice her seeing as it's a holiday. She grabs the bag that she packed the night before, takes a small picnic basket and puts on her little shoes before happily walking along to the park, leaving her large, spacious home.

Finally, a shorter, less curvaceous girl ties her long, brown hair in a simple ponytail, brushing her fringe out and shrugging on her white yukata. She gives her mum props for picking out such a pretty red, floral pattern and somehow has to tie her red obi by herself, the best that she can. She looks at make-up that she could apply and then decides against it, instead grabbing money and her phone and shoving it in a bag, with a little loop of silk that she can tie around her wrist. She locks up her apartment and takes the elevator down before walking the short distance to the park.

* * *

I had to talk to him. I had to talk to Kouta. If there was one thing that I had to do by the end of the day, the end of the week, I had to clear up what it was. Even after I found that note and remembered what he had told me about his family, he still made it seem like I had missed something important out. He didn't seem satisfied, and neither was I – so I had to find out what it was or it was going to drive me insane.

When I arrived at the park, everyone was already there, apart from Akihisa.

"I knew I should have walked with him instead of letting him go by himself," I think out loud as we wait for him in a circle.  
"He's not a four-year-old child?" Himeji replies.  
"No, but he has the brains of one. He's probably lost or…" my sentence is cut off by a screech that sounds almost pre-pubescent coming from behind me.

"I'm here!" Akihisa yells, pushing through the circle to make his entrance just that little bit more obvious. "And I brought Hazuki!"  
"You brought my sister?! Hazuki! I thought you were busy today," Minami says, running over to her little sister, who's holding Akihisa's hand.  
"Akihisa held her hand?" Himeji asks.  
"Yeah, why is she holding your hand?" Minami places one hand on her hip.

"Oh dear God, the day has only just started," Hideyoshi places his head in his hands.  
"Looks like this is going to be fun," I clap my hands together and watch the action unfold.  
"We need to find something to distract them or get them apart or something, or this will be no fun," Yuji says, looking around for ideas.  
"Couples' Nature Trail," Shouko points to a sign.

"Look, Shouko, I don't really have time and please don't break my spine or electrocute me or poke out my eyes but we don't have the freaking time to go on a…" Shouko cuts him off midway through.

"No, Yuji, Couples' Nature Trail," she repeats the words slowly as if he's missing something blindingly obvious, and then pokes him in the eyes anyway.

"Shouko!" he yelps and then clutches his eyes, falling to the ground.  
"You were looking at all of the girls in yukatas," she kneels beside him and narrows her eyes at him.  
"Well, I think what the rest of us learnt from that is that Shouko thinks it's a good idea that we should all go on the couples' nature trail," Hideyoshi explains.  
"In yukatas?" I look down at my own and everyone else's.  
"Everyone here is in similar dress, so it won't be anything too strenuous, will it?" Hideyoshi walks over to look at the sign and returns within five minutes. "Well, that looks interesting," he grins.

"I really don't like that grin you're wearing right now," I look at him suspiciously.  
"What? I think it really will be interesting."  
"Yeah, I don't doubt that."

"Now we just have to wait for the others to arrive and then we can go," Yuji says. "If you're really all sure about this."  
"I'm sure."  
"I'm sure."  
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."  
"Sure," Kouta adds.

"Well, isn't that great?" he sighs to himself.  
"Great."  
"Great."  
"Really great."  
"Pretty great."

"It doesn't sound like a trail," Hideyoshi shakes his head, looking at the leaflet he's holding in his hands.  
"Well, that's a relief to be honest," Yuji nods.  
"It sounds more like a challenge to me," Hideyoshi adds, and Yuji's face falls again. The rest of us gulp at the idea of it all, but before we can say anything, the three of them are back from their argument.

Minami and Himeji look rather sour at the end of it all, but Akihisa and Hazuki are just their usual cheery, oblivious selves.  
"So we had an idea!" Yuji butts in before they can even say a word, suddenly a thousand times more enthusiastic about the nature trail after seeing the three of their faces. "We're all going to go on a nature trail."  
"I… I'm not sure if a nature trail is the best idea," Himeji looks down at her pretty yukata and I can see that in her head she's imagining what it would look like covered in mud.  
"It's less of a trail… and more of a… challenge," Hideyoshi continues whilst me, Shouko and Kouta stay entirely silent, as per usual.  
"A… competition kind of challenge?" Minami grins.

"I guess we could make it into a competition. It's in couples by the way," Hideyoshi adds, as if it's not going to be a big thing that Akihisa will have to go with one of the girls.  
"We could pick names out of a hat," Yuji suggests.  
"No fun," Shouko says, grabbing on to Yuji's arm.  
"It might give me a chance to not be with Shouko?"  
"You will always be with Shouko," Shouko replies, holding on tighter.

"Well, that's Shouko and Yuji sorted as one couple," Hideyoshi, the group's mother, shoos them away and out of the circle so that he can sort the rest. "Hmm, who shall we have as the next," he looks at Minami, Himeji and Akihisa and decides that he probably doesn't want to have to split them up, or at least that he can't deal with it right now.  
"Karin, Kouta," Yuji says. "You two can be a couple," he nods, as he grabs Kouta and Shouko grabs me.

Hideyoshi gives out a sigh of relief, and pulls a coin from his bag.  
"Heads, Himeji, tails, Minami," he mutters to himself before flipping it and calling it as heads.  
"Himeji, you're with me. Minami, you're with Akihisa."  
"This is how it always is," Himeji says softly.  
"We'll take Hazuki with us; they'll let us, won't they?" Minami says, grabbing the other hand of her sister somewhat firmly.

"Naturally."

"Right, you all need to listen to me, and you need to listen to me good, because I'm only going to repeat this once," Hideyoshi says, opening up the leaflet. "These, my friends," he smirks, "are the rules."

* * *

_Greenery Day Couples' Nature Trail – The Rules_

_1. You will enter in teams of one male and one female. Up to two children under 12 can enter with each couple._

_2. The nature trail consists of three stages._

_ a) A 5 mile hike over various terrain_

_ b) a 1.5 mile three-legged race_

_ c) an obstacle course_

_3. The couple with the fastest time by 7pm will win an unknown prize._

_4. Entries must be made by 4pm._

_5. Any couples who are not back by 8pm will be searched for by officials in charge of the events._

_6. Going off the track may result in disqualification, cheating is not accepted._

_7. If you suspect you will not make it back by 8pm, for whatever reason, please do not enter._

_8. It is advisable to not take children under 8 on the hike as it is rather strenuous._

_9. Tamaka Central Park is not liable for any injuries encountered whilst on the Nature Trail._

_10. Disputes will be decided by officials in charge of the nature trail, and their word is final._

* * *

"Holy crap," Minami says, her eyes widening a little. "A 5 mile hike over… various terrain… what could that even mean? They could make us go up a hill or something and wearing yukatas and ugh, why are we going on this again?"  
"I think it will be fun," Himeji smiles girlishly.  
"I mean, of course it will be fun, I was just… worried about… Hazuki, that's all," Minami laughs sheepishly.  
"Don't be worried about _me,_" Hazuki stamps all over Minami's excuse.

"Well, I think it will be a welcome change but…"  
"What?" Kouta turns to Yuji, who has begun to speak.  
"You know how we are, those gambling kids of Class F. How about we make a little bet of our own on who wins and who loses? Wouldn't that be fun?" he smirks somewhat evilly and rubs his hands together. "Spice things up a bit."

"So how will it go?" I ask.  
"Well… the winners, hm, the winners, everybody stick in 900 yen and then the winners can split it," Yuji decides. "The losers… we'll tailor the punishment to suit them."  
"900 yen? 700," Akihisa barters.  
"Okay… 700, everyone, come on, give it to Himeji."  
"Why Himeji?"

"She's the most trustworthy person here."  
"No, Yuji," Shouko says, giving him a glare with an evil glint in his eye.  
"Give the money to Shouko," he sighs.

We all rummage around for the coins in our own bags and hand them over to Shouko, who puts them in a special section of her purse.  
"I'm so happy to spend time with you, Yuji," she says huskily, turning to him and clutching on to his arms as was her usual routine.  
"Well, this is going to be fun, right?" I turn around to Kouta, who's barely said two words since we got here.  
"What's the time?"  
"It's 11:34am," Hideyoshi checks his phone.

"We all meet back here once we're done, okay? Those are the rules," Minami says, practically dragging Hazuki along with her.  
"Come on… Yuji," Shouko takes him towards the checkpoint.  
"We should so win this," Himeji went with Hideyoshi.  
"Well, this is going to be fun," I stretch.  
"Mm," mumbles Kouta.


End file.
